tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 05 17:19:32 2000

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RE: KLBC: Hamlet's soliloquy



jatlh De'vID:

> I'm reading Hamlet, and now I'm at Hamlet's
> soliloquy, and I don't quite understand the 
> grammar of this passage:

> /taH pagh taHbe'.  DaH mu'tlheghvam vIqelnIS.
> quv'a', yabDaq San vaQ cha, pu' je SIQDI'?
> pagh, Seng bIQ'a'Hey SuvmeH nuHmey SuqDI',
> 'ej, Suvmo', rInmoHDI'?/

> In the above, what is the other part of the
> /-DI'/ sentences (SIQDI', SuqDI', rInmoHDI')?  
> Is it /quv'a'/?

HIja'.

> Also, what exactly does /-DI'/ mean?  Does it
> mean "when" *only* in the sense of "as soon as",
> or does it have a broadly meaning, something
> more like "while"?  I am a little confused as
> to the difference between /-DI'/ and /-taHvIS/
> in certain contexts.

> What would /quv'a' ... SIQDI'?/ mean?
> What about /quv'a' ... SIQtaHvIS?/?

That's a good question. Just going from the text on <-vIS> and <-DI'> in
TKD, it seems like the appropriate thing here would be <-vIS> (with <-taH>,
of course). However, a look at the canon uses of <-DI'> includes some of the
following from TKW:

bomDI' 'IwwIj qaqaw. (p. 17)
loQ 'oy'DI' SuvwI' bepbe' (p. 46)
batlh qelDI' tlhIngan, lumbe' (p. 67)

Here are some examples with <-vIS>:

Qu'Daj ta'taHvIS Hegh 'e' tul Hoch tlhIngan (p. 74)
qaStaHvIS wa' ram loSSaD Hugh SIjlaH qetbogh loD (p. 127)

These are examples of <-DI'> used in a similar way. The verb with <-DI'>
sets the time context of the action for the main verb. It is a lot like
<-vIS> when used like this. I think the difference is that with <-vIS>, the
action of the verb with <-vIS> definitely continues through the action of
the main verb, and that's important. That is probably a big part of the
reason <-vIS> requires <-taH>. With <-DI'>, the action of the action can
sometimes continue through the action of the main verb, but it doesn't have
to.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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