tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 02 23:48:22 2000
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Re: Deixis and direction
jatlh qe'San:
> I thought [qang] meant "pour from one thing to another/decant".. wouldn't
> that (and this is a question) mean that if a target of the pouring was
> specified it would be the indirect object of the sentence with the direct
> object, if specified, being the liquid..???
Thanks, qe'San. You've helped me to illustrate one of my points: that our
understanding of Klingon is going to be inextricably tied in with our
understanding of English (or whatever your native language happens to be).
bIQ vIqang.
I pour the water.
I can't disagree with the idea that pouring can be done for an indirect
object, so I'll add the following non-object, non-subject noun:
HIvje'vaD bIQ vIqang.
I'm not entirely certain I like that. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it
certainly strikes me as icky.
On the other hand, if I want to express the idea of the cup's location, I'd
say
HIvje'Daq bIQ vIqang.
Or, if I wanted to express the idea that the captain made me pour the water,
I could say
HoDmo' bIQ vIqang.
I might even combine all of these and still get a meaningful sentence
(provided you accepted /HIvje'vaD/).
HoDmo' HIvje'Daq HIvje'vaD bIQ vIqang.
Personally, I wouldn't use /HIvje'vaD/ for this sort of thing unless I was
absolutely sure it conveyed the right meaning. It just sounds too strange
for me. If I'm talking about pouring the water INTO the cup, I'll use
/-Daq/, since that'll give me the same end result, yet its meaning is pretty
clear.
> As to pouring into something I thought the verb used there was [lIch] -
> pour (into/onto anything). In this case as into/onto is implied in the
> action.
Ha!! Wonderful way to circumvent the whole question!
Alas, the idiom uses /qang/, not /lIch/. Is /lIch/ general purpose, or is
there a restricted meaning? I don't know where in KLINGON FOR THE GALACTIC
TRAVELER to find it. Sometimes the addendum of that book isn't entirely
clear on the special meanings of things.
SuStel
Stardate 504.5