Re: SIv (Re: Hello)

["William H. Martin" <whm2m@server1.mail.virginia.edu>]

On Mon, 22 Feb 1999 17:40:57 -0800 (PST) TPO <cheesbro@rpa.net> 
wrote:

> >"All four words asked about ({tul} 'hope', {Qub} 'think', {Sov} 'know', and
> >{SIv} 'wonder') can be used in the construction {S 'e' V}, 
> ..
> >it's OK to say ... {tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh 'e' vISIv} 'I wonder if you speak
> >Klingon'.
> 
> This is interesting considering that in the recent interview in the latest
> HolQeD, MO said that he didn't know how SIv worked.

It is interesting. Meanwhile, the sentence he kept repeating 
that he could not figure out how to express was, "I wonder who's 
kissing her now". I did not choose to punctuate it right then 
because I'm not even sure how it works in ENGLISH. Is it a 
question? Well, sort of. But not really. It is strange and 
beautiful.

In the earlier example, he used {SIv} as the second verb of a 
sentence as object construction to mean "I wonder if...". That 
is a question one would answer with "yes" or "no", but in 
English, "wonder" can deal with questions of other types, like, 
"Who is kissing her now?"

Okrand was simply enjoying the mysterious fullness of this 
particular verb and I think he wants it to do something 
particularly interesting. It is like a one verb project of his. 
He may never finish it. We may always "wonder" how to use {SIv}. 
Or he may come up with something later that is outright 
fascinating. I'm willing to let him cook on {SIv} for a while.

Until then, likely it is okay to use the {'e' SIv} to mean 
"wonder if", since most people here would understand it because 
of the canon usage. Doing more? I personally don't plan to, 
unless I'm hit by some kind of fun inspiration, and then I would 
not take it seriously (except that Okrand tends to respect fun 
inspiration, which is how we got words like {'I'} and {nughI'}.
 
> What cannon do we have on ra' ?

voragh does this a lot better than I do.
 
> do you command the person, or can you (also) command an 'e' ?

Definitely a person. {'e'}, while likely, gets a bit weird 
around the edges. I'd want to see Okrand do it before I got too 
fired up about the prospect.

> DloraH

charghwI' 'utlh