tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 20 21:05:27 1999
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Re: Mu'mey chu'
ja' DujHoD:
>jatlh SuStel:
>>GRAMATICALLY, {tujqu'choH QuQ} means "The engines become HOT." The "hot" is
>>emphasized. The correct INTERPRETATION for this sentence is "The engines
>>become TOO hot." It is not "The engines become hot, as opposed to cold."
>>This interpretation is not part of the grammar, it is part of common sense.
>
>Is this canonical? I would have thought {tujqu'choH QuQ} would mean, "The
>engines become *very* hot," or "The engines become *really* hot."
The "very" or "really" word is a lexical way to emphasize what the {-qu'}
suffix is attached to. It isn't part of the defined meaning of the suffix
at all. What is tripping you (and lots of people) up on this is the way
it's described on page 49 of TKD, section 4.4 "Adjectives":
The rover {-qu'} "emphatic" (section 4.3) may follow verbs
functioning adjectivally. In this usage, it is usually translated
"very".
Note that this "very" is a *translation* of the meaning, which is still
simple emphasis. Other translations are possible, and indeed preferable
in many cases when one is trying to translate Klingon text into smooth
idiomatic English text.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh