tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 31 13:17:31 1999
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Re: Word order revisited
ja' Voragh:
>Ship names, however, are a mixed bag. The tag/label can follow the name:
>
> qIvo'rIt toQDuj K'Vort-class Bird-of-Prey S7
> qItI'nga' Duj the K'Tinga-class S15 [sic]
Pardon? {qIvo'rIt} and {qItI'nga'} obviously come *first* here.
>or it may precede it:
>
> tlhIngan wo' Duj pagh The Imperial Klingon Vessel Pagh S7
> qItI'nga Duj tI'ang this [K'Tinga] class, the T'Ong S15
> DIvI' 'ejDo' 'entepray' the USS Enterprise S15
I don't see anything different between these three and the first two.
The descriptive phrase or word precedes the noun being described, just
like any other noun-noun construction.
>These last three may actually be examples of apposition. They have alternate
>translations that would make sense in context:
>
> an imperial Klingon vessel, the Pagh, ...
> a K'Tinga (class) ship, the T'Ong, ...
> a Federation starship, the Enterprise, ...
Apposition could perhaps apply in any case where a proper name is used, but
I don't think it's the only interpretation.
>If I'm correct, the ship designations USS and IKS/IKV act as appositive
>phrases
>preceding ship names (as in English), not titles/class names following
>them, in
>Klingon.
I don't think they're appositive phrases. I think they're "attributive", in
exactly the way {tlhIngan} describes {Hol} in {tlhIngan Hol}.
-- ghunchu'wI'