tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 01 14:12:01 2002
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Re: beachquestion #4: two verbs
Quvar wrote:
> > When I was at the {Daq 'IHqu'}, I observed some girls and tried to
> > describe one with "long black hair":
> >
> > {jIb tIq ghaj wa' be'}
> > {jIb qIj ghaj wa' be'}
> >
> > How, or is it it possible to use two verbs on one noun?
> > Maybe I should rephrase it to something like
> >
> > {qIjbogh jIb tIq} "long hair which is black" ??
> > {tIqbogh jIb qIj} "black hair which is long" ??
SuStel:
>That works, but we've seen it done a different way by Okrand. It would come
>out as:
>
> tIqbogh jIb 'ej qIjbogh
> "hair which is long and which is black"
>
>The "sentence" conjunctions can actually join any verbal clauses, not just
>main sentences. There are many examples of this.
Okrand describes this use of two closely related verbs in KGT (p.82). His
examples there, in dealing with shades of colors, were:
SuD 'ej wov
(it) is {SuD} and light (a way to refer to a yellowish tinge)
SuD 'ach wov
{SuD} but light (is also heard)
Doq 'ej beqpuj rur
(it) is {Doq} and resembles {beqpuj} (an orange mineral)
SuD Dargh 'ej wov
The tea is {SuD} and light
SuDbogh Dargh 'ej wovbogh
The tea that is {SuD} and light
So back to the girls. Another way to describe them is:
tIq jIbchaj 'ej qIj.
Their hair is long and (it is) black.
But if you want to refer to "their long, black hair" in some other context,
you have to use {-bogh}:
mubelmoHqu' tIqbogh jIbchaj 'ej qIjbogh.
I really liked their long, black hair.
Their long, black hair pleased me greatly.
("Their hair which is long and which is black pleased me greatly.")
It also appears that when the {-bogh}ed verbs are in close proximity to
their head noun - i.e. without a lot of intervening relative clauses or
appositional phrases - you can move it to the end of the phrase:
mubelmoHqu' tIqbogh 'ej qIjbogh jIbchaj.
Many people object to this syntax, but we do have an example of it from KCD:
romuluSngan Sambogh 'ej HoHbogh nejwI'
a Romulan hunter-killer probe
This may, however, be some sort of technical usage. Do we have any more
like this?
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons