tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 19 09:18:57 2001
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Re: (KLBC) bIbergh / berghwI'
ghaHbe'wI' asks:
: This question is not about syntax or grammar, but on the meaning of similar
: structures.
Since you're asking for opinions, I'll give you my cha' DarSeq.
: I'd like to know what you understand from these sentences:
: 1- bIbergh
: 2- berghwI' SoH
: Do these sentences have different meanings? Do they emphasize something
: or both are neutral?
They do have different meanings however they are both neutral statements
grammatically. This is how you would emphasize {SoH} in each:
bIbergh SoH.
berghwI' SoH'e'.
: In my opinion, sentence 1 is neutral, while 2 emphasizes {SoH}. Also,
Well, no. 2 "emphasizes" {SoH} only in comparison to no. 1 but not by itself.
: sentence 2, due to {-wI'}, means that being irritable is an inherent
: personality trait of {SoH}.
Here I agree with you; logically, this makes sense. Sentence 1 seems to refer
to the moment, while 2 seems to refer to a perceived trait. I say "seems to"
because we do have two examples of {nep} from TKD:
bInep
You lie. You're lying.
nepwI' Daba'
He is obviously lying.
(lit. "He is behaving as (acting in the manner of) a liar.")
N.B. "He is obviously lying" not "He is obviously a liar (by nature)." The
translation depends on context since the second seems to be referring to a
specific statement just made, judging by Okrand's own translation.
FWIW, Paramount actually used {nep} correctly in one of its early TNG scripts
("A Matter of Honor"):
yIHarQo'! nepwI' ghaH!
"Do not believe him! He lies."
According to tevram, this line appeareds phonetically in the script as:
*yI-Har-Qo! nep-we' ghaH!* - literally "He's a liar". The context again seems
to refer to someone's specific statement which the speaker is objecting to,
again judging by the close-captioned English which, of course, is not a literal
translation. [This is remarkable for Paramount, in that they got the Klingon
right! The TNG writing staff was much more careful in the early days.] I
mention this example only to emphasize the paramount importance of context when
translating. <g>
As I said, logically your feeling that {berghwI' SoH} implies an inherent
personality trait makes sense... at least to this non-native speaker. However,
natives aren't always logical and may not perceive the literal meaning of their
words (e.g. double negatives are a good example of this). To be certain, we
need to ask Maltz if Klingons perceive the distinction and, if so, whether it's
a feature of careful vs. careless speech (again, like double negatives in
English).
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons