tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 13 15:10:39 2000
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Re: Grammar Highlight Each Day (bo-)
- From: Marc Ruehlaender <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Grammar Highlight Each Day (bo-)
- Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 17:10:22 CST
going through my old e-mail, I stumbled across this...
In message <l03020908b63e47ae60e0@[216.117.64.16]> Alan Anderson writes:
> ja'pu' Holtej:
> > BTW, out of curiosity, why are you conjugating the verbs, as in (Sov =
> > knows)? Why not present them in a way that's consistent with how TKD
> > presents them, for consistency and clarity?
>
> ja' HomDoq:
> > I actually like this. It helps prevent people from thinking they
> > can use un-prefixed verb forms like they can use infinitives in English.
>
ghel ghunchu'wI', ja':
> How does it do that? I don't understand what you mean.
>
because it is different in form from the infinitive, thus stressing the fact
that it is a conjugated verb form. There are no infinitives in Klingon
(IMO)
> The biggest problem I have with such a presentation is that it completely
> ignores any distinction between an unprefixed verb and a verb with a null
> prefix. That distinction does occasionally become important, such as when
> appending a type 9 suffix like {-wI'} or {-ghach} or even {-meH}.
except for the case of {-meH}, I don't see why the verb in {-wI'}- and
{-ghach}-nouns has to be seen as "unprefixed". In order to be able to carry
{-wI'} the verb has to have a 3rd person sg subject. But is {luHoHwI'}
really ungrammatical? Or {retIchlI'ghach}?
> It also
> puts extreme focus on the *least* common form of the verb when translated
> into English. Even limiting the discussion to present tense, "knows"
> occurs only with a singular third person subject. The TKD-compliant "know"
> is found when translating every other combination of number and person.
>
but for all the possible (present tense) meanings of {HoH}, "kills"
occurs in three out of five.
Marc Ruehlaender
aka HomDoq
[email protected]