tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 04 22:00:35 2000
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Grammar Highlight (Almost) Each Day: cause {-moH}
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Grammar Highlight (Almost) Each Day: cause {-moH}
- Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 00:59:41 EST
Disclaimer: This highlight is not a complete tool for learning the Klingon
language. Even this highlight leaves out other important aspects of the verb
suffix {-moH}.
A verb expressing quality, glossed in the dictionary as "be .............,"
cannot take an object while in its natural state. Notice: qIj HIp = the
uniform is black (one cannot "black" a uniform); tIn Doch = the thing is big
(one cannot "big" a thing).
Today's highlight is "cause to be black"; "cause to be big."
HIp qIjmoH rItlh = The pigment causes the uniform to be black OR The pigment
blackens the uniform. (HIp = uniform; qIj = be black, qIjmoH = causes to be
black; rItlh = pigment).
While both translations are good translations into English, the first is the
"feeling" Klingons undergo. A Klingon grammarian may not use the term Direct
Object when translating this type of sentence. But English grammarians would
say that the second translation has a Direct Object, and it is "uniform."
Doch tInmoH loD = The man makes the thing be big OR The man enlarges the
thing.
(Doch = thing; tIn = be big, tInmoH = causes to be big; loD = man).
qagh 'eymoH 'uSu' = The sauce causes the Ghak to be delicious. (qagh =
serpent worms prepared alive as food, aka Ghak; 'ey = be delicious, be tasty,
'eymoH = causes to be delicious; 'uSu' = a type sauce).
This highlight does not even touch on putting the verb suffix {-moH} onto
verbs other than those expressing a quality.
peHruS