tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jan 06 08:19:09 2001
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
passive, indefinite pronoun, -lu'
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: passive, indefinite pronoun, -lu'
- Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 11:18:49 EST
>From a recent GHED:
> quSvamDaq ba'lu''a'? "Is this seat taken?"
> In general, there are two common ways of translating
> Klingon verbs with {-lu'}, ...
[snipped]
> One way is to use the rather archaic "one" as a pronoun.
> The above translation would then be "Is it that one sits in
> this chair?"
two points here:
1) the unspecified subject of the klingon verb is better translated by
'someone' or 'somebody' than by 'one'.
2) even using 'one', the question should be "Does one sit in this chair?".
you have embedded the statement "One sits in this chair" in another sentence,
namely "Is it that...?" instead of merely making a question out of it as was
done in the klingon by adding the verb suffix -'a' to the verb ba'lu'.
using my choice of 'someone' i would translate the question as "Does someone
sit in this chair?" or "Is someone sitting in this chair?" (since
tense/aspect is unspecified).
can the pronoun 'e' take the verb suffix -'a' to translate more literally "Is
it that..?", e.g. <quSvamDaq ba'lu' 'e''a'?> ?
in a separate message from the same day:
< I don't have a problem with using words like ``dative'' around beginners,
< but they should be translated from the Latin.
it sounds like you're saying it's okay to use words like 'dative', and then
saying words like 'dative' shouldn't be used. 'dative' is not a latin word,
it's english, despite its latin origin. would you give up the entire
latin-based portion of english as well?
< Dative is the ``giving case''; it marks the recipient of the giving.
'giving case' is not a standard grammar term (and should be 'given-to case'),
and even though it uses more ordinary words than 'dative', it has a less
specific meaning until you give it a definition, so you may as well you
'dative' anyway.
lay'tel SIvten