tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 12 22:29:18 2000
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Use of topic as header
jatlh charghwI':
> I think we would all do well to better understand what is meant by
"topic".
> I'm tempted to consider it to be a rough equivalent to an awkward "of" in
> English.
"Of" works in some cases, but I don't think it works just like you've
suggested.
jatlh charghwI':
> {Soj'e' Suja'chuq} "Of food we discuss."
This one seems pretty clear, and using "of" works as a translation.
jatlh charghwI':
> {paq'e' jInaj.} "Of the
> book I dream."
I still don't know what this is supposed to mean, exactly. "I dream of the
book"? "I dream about the contents of the book"? "The book is about my
dream"? There has to be more context to let us know what this topic has to
do with the rest of the sentence before it'll make sense.
However, the English translation seems nearly as vague as to the meaning as
the Klingon does, so it could be called a good translation.
jatlh charghwI':
>{Hut'e' Soch jIH.} "Of nine, I am seven."
I still don't like this. Yes, "Seven" is in relation to "Nine," but that
doesn't mean that "Nine" is always going to be the topic of the sentence.
jatlh nov: SoH 'Iv?
jatlh be': Hut'e' Soch jIH.
Why is the topic of the woman's sentence "Nine"? No one was talking about
nine, it was never a topic.
The "of" in English seems to indicate a subset. In this case "Seven" is a
member of "Nine." I don't think topics indicate sets for which the sentence
indicates subsets.
Note that this is not the same thing that's going on in /qIbDaq SuvwI''e'
SoH Dun law' Hoch Dun puS/. Here, the topic is warriors, and then a
comparative is made. Vixis does not use /SuvwI''e'/ to create a set from
which a subset is drawn. The set is in /Hoch/.
> {yo' Soch'e' Qanqor
> HoS law' Hoch HoS puS} "Krankor is the strongest person of the seventh
> fleet."
I like this one better, but your English translation hides the grammar of
the Klingon. This is more akin to "Regading the seventh fleet, Krankor is
the strongest." The context makes it pretty clear that you mean he's the
strongest PERSON in the seventh fleet, but I don't think this comes through
simply because of the choice of topic.
One might have thought about this as
yo' Soch yaS'e' Qanqor HoS law' Hoch HoS puS.
Regarding the officers of the seventh fleet, Krankor is the strongest.
"Of" only works in the English translation by coincidence in this case.
I don't think a formula stating what the topic does to a sentence is really
in order. I think if it's not clearly used for emphasis, the topic is just
a topic. It's the matter in question. Just like in grade school you learn
that the first sentence of a paragraph is supposed to be the "topic
sentence," that which the whole paragraph is about, in Klingon the topic
ending in /-'e'/ tells us what the sentence is about. I feel that
consistently translating it as "of" doesn't always come out right.
SuStel
Stardate 531.8