tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 22 14:15:53 2002
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Re: similes
>From: Quvar valer <[email protected]>
>vIjonta' vIneH
>this means only one thing: I wanted to capture them
>(literally: I want that I have captured them)
--snip--
>right?
>qar'a'?
ghobe'. Your first example (the one adapted from TKD) could mean several things, including:
1 There was an opportunity to capture them and at that time I wanted to take it.
2 I wanted to capture them should the opportunity have arisen.
3 Before the oppurtunity arose, I was waiting for it, but changed my mind before it arose.
4 Before the oppurtunity arose, I was waiting for it, but when it arrived I was prevented from taking it. Now I am glad I
didn't.
5 There was an opportunity to capture them, but I didn't care: now I regret that.
1-4 are all similar, and are expressed in English by "I wanted to capture them", but 6 is better as "I want to have
captured them", or even "I wish I had captured them".
1 could be if I have an enemy ship ready to be boarded, and I want its crew as prisoners, but they auto-destruct it.
2 could refer to when I was a cadet and my ambition (other than dying a glorious death) was to capture prisoners for the
empire.
3 could be as 2, but I later became a pacifist and ended up not capturing any prisoners ever.
4 could be as 2, but when I was about to capture some prisoners, they all got away. Later I found out that they had
ultritium strapped to their chests and would have blown me up had I captured them.
5 I was a civilian when the Romulans attacked my home: I could have taken one prisoner, but I killed him instead. Later
I found out that he knew who killed my father: information I should have extracted from him.
As I understand it, the -ta' means there is some point in the past at which either the wanting or the opportunity to
capture happenned. There is no idea of which it is, nor of what order they come in, or the aspect of the other.
I think most of these ambiguities could be resolved using ngugh and DaH as a timestamp. But can you put an extra
timestamp between the verbs, viz?
ngugh vIjon DaH vIneH (which would be no. 5)
I haven't ever seen this usage, but then my experience of tlhIngan Hol is very small, and I haven't seen anything
expressly forbidding it.
>Quvar.
Sulu' wa'