tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 19 09:38:35 2000
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RE: Daj (2)
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: Daj (2)
- Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 09:41:23 -0700
lab De'vID
> lay'tel SIvten:
> > "to be interesting" is not just a verb; it's "to be" plus an adjective,
> > and the adjective happens to be a form (present participle) of the
> > transitive verb "to interest".
>
> Qov:
> > The key phrase here is "happens to be". It's just a twist of English
> > that this adjective comes froma participle. Klingon does not have any
> > separate verbs to express concepts that are participles in English.
> >
> > Here's an example:
> >
> > Daj Suy - "The merchant is interesting."
> >
> > bu'vaD mIw DajchoHmoHlI' Suy - "The merchant is interesting the
> > sergeant in a helmet."
>
> nuqjatlh? /mIw/ is obviously a typo for /mIvDaq/.
reH Suvrup SuvwI''a'. mIw is a typo for mIv. If it were intended to be
mIvDaq, we'd be looking at a cat-in-the-hat construction.
> Is the second
> sentence supposed to be intentionally erroneous, to show how
> even *if* /Daj/ meant "to be *interested*", you would need
> different grammar to make "to interest"?
No, the error was unintentional. The English translation was perhaps
ambiguous. Had I meant that the merchant was eliciting a helmet-wearing
sergeant's interest in herself, the merchant, I would have written:
mIv tuQbogh bu'vaD Daj'eghchoHmoHlI' Suy
"The merchant was making herself interesting, for the sake of the sergeant
who wore a helmet."
But that's a complex enough concept to require extra sentences of
explanation, in English or Klingon.
> I read it as "The
> merchant is causing the sergeant (in a helmet) to become
> interesting"
> -- unless the /-moH/ isn't supposed to be there.
It's the w that isn't supposed to be there. Remeber that with the -vaD
suffix on bu', bu' could not possibly be the object of the verb /DajmoH/.
TKD 6.1: "Any noun in the sentence indicating something other than subject
or object comes first, before the object noun. Such nouns usually end in a
Type-5 noun suffix."
bu' DajchoHmoHlI' Suy - "the merchant is causing the sergeant to become
interesting"
mIv tuQbogh bu''e' DajchoHmoHlI' Suy - "the merchant is causing the
sergeant (in a hat) to become interesting."
My sentence: bu'vaD mIv DajchoHmoHlI' Suy
bu'vaD - for the sergeant
mIv - helmet (object)
DajchoHmoHlI' - in the directed process of causing to change to be
interesting
Suy - merchant (subject)
"The merchant is intentionally causing a helmet to become interesting for
the sake of the sergeant."
Thus the merchant is in the process of doing something to cause the helmet
to become intersting, as far as the sergeant is concerned. Maybe she's
lowering the price, telling him it was once owned by Kahless, throwing a
free 'aqnaw in with the purchase, or telling him it's a babe magnet. Or
perhaps the sergeant asked her to polish it up a bit, to hold the attention
of a suspected helmet-thief, and she's doing as requested.
If the interesting/be interested thing has you going around the bend,
compare it to this sentence, with the same structure:
be'vaD taj jejchoHmoHlI' mang - "the soldier is sharpening the knife for
the woman" (we don't know whether he's doing her a favour or preparing to
slit her throat -- which in Klingon society could be a favour, but now I'm
digressing from my digression)
It's unfortunate that a one-letter typo clouded this so much.
wIngachmo' jIHvaD DajchoHtaH mIvqoqvam!
Qov