tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 30 14:52:01 1998

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: RE: prepositional phrases



On Mon, 30 Nov 1998 13:57:27 -0800 (PST) "Rose, Thornton 
(Atlanta)" <[email protected]> wrote:

> > > > I'm also looking for how to say, 'too much of
> > > ><something>'.
> > > 
> > > Where English says "too much", Klingon often merely emphasizes the
> > > quality with the verb suffix {-qu'}.  In TKD's appendix of useful
> > > phrases, we find {tujqu'choH QuQ} "the engine is overheating."
> > 
> > While this is true, on the online NEWS list Okrand once objected 
> > to my carrying that generalization too far... 
> > Typically, it takes too sentences. "I'm too late for the 
> > meeting." {maghom vIneH 'ach jIpaS. nargh 'eb.}... 
> > 
> > This is simply something that you need to take on a case by case 
> > basis and translate the MEANING instead of falling back to some 
> > pat formula...
> >  
> > charghwI' 'utlh
> > 
> So, could you use this technique to translate, "I ate too 
> much food at the Thanksgiving Day celebration?"

Well, consider what you mean by this. What potential did you 
lose by eating too much? Comfort? qaStaHvIS *Thanksgiving* 'uQ
jISopqu'mo' jIbelHa'. Again, you need to state something about 
the nature of the lost potential because of the excessive 
quality. That, very simply, is the difference between "very" and 
"too".

> ~ Thornton

charghwI'



Back to archive top level