tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 29 15:10:59 2000
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RE: KLBC: -law'
- From: Eric Andeen <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC: -law'
- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 15:10:28 -0700
jatlh De'vID:
> I know that there is a bit of controversy as to how far
> /-be'/ applies in a sentence. I think there are several
> canon examples of /-be'/ being applied to something far
> away from what it's immediately attached to. But what
> about other verb suffixes? I was having a little trouble
> with /-law'/.
> For example,
> /qatlh 'oH Dapar/ "Why do you dislike it?"
> Now, if I add a /-law'/,
> /qatlh 'oH Daparlaw'/
> Does this mean
> "Why do you {sort of dislike it}?" i.e.
> "You've seem to be uncertain whether you dislike it,
> but why do you?"
> or
> "Why does it appear that {you dislike it}?" i.e.
> "*I'm* not certain that you dislike it, but why do you
> if you do?"
I'm not certain there's much of a difference between these two.
> What I'm trying to get at is, does the uncertainty indicated
> by /-law'/ apply to the speaker, or the person being spoken to?
<-law'> indicates uncertainty, but exactly *who* is uncertain is generally
pretty flexible. Often you really don't have to pin it down. If I say
<jorpa' qach, Dejlaw' beb>, most likely *everyone* is uncertain about
exactly what happened. On the other hand, if I say <Doqlaw'.>, and someone
answers <ghobe'. SuD.>, then I'm clearly the only one who is uncertain. It
depends on the situation, but most of the time it's probably just general
uncertainty.
One canon example of <-law'> from a Skybox card is: <puvlaHbogh Duj
ngabmoHlaw' So'wI'>. In this case, the speaker (i.e. Klingon Science Guy who
writes captions for trading cards) is obviously not specifically qualifying
the statement from his perspective.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian