tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 12 17:03:06 2002
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: subjectless verbs (was: matlhHa'ghach)
From: "Andrew Strader" <[email protected]>
> ghItlh 'ISqu':
> >ghItlh Andrew Strader (Mon, 10 Jun 2002):
> >: lut naQ vIja'meH loQ *Qatlhpu'*
> >naDev wot {SIS} luDalaw' wotmey {Qatlhpu'} {ngeD} je. wotmeyvam tlha'
pagh
> >DIp. vangwI' 'oSbogh DIp'e' luHutlh mu'tlhegmey vIqeltaHbogh.
> >The highlighted verbs {Qatlhpu'} and {ngeD} lack explicit subjects, as is
> >often the case with {SIS}.
>
> You better read your TKD. There's nothing special about verbs lacking an
> explicit subject in Klingon. It happens all the time. "Qong" is a complete
> sentence. You may wish to consider Qatlh in my above sentence as having an
> implicit Qu' or mIw as subject.
But does the sentence mean what you want it to mean? You were apparently
trying for "It had been a little difficult to tell the whole story." But
what you wrote, /lut naQ vIja'meH loQ Qatlhpu' [Qu']/, says to me, "For the
purpose of telling the whole story, the task had been a little difficult."
That is, some task had been difficult, and the purpose of this difficulty
was for you to tell the whole story. But the difficulty didn't have a
purpose!
I'd reword this to something like: lut Hoch vIja'DI' loQ Qatlh ja'meH Qu'
("When I told the whole story, the task of telling was a little difficult.")
/ja'meH Qu'/ parallels examples like /ghojmeH taj/ "knife for learning,
boy's knife."
> SIS is not attested in a sentence in canon, so we really don't know about
it.
Well, DloraH reports that Okrand used /SIS/ in a number of sentences spoken
to him, and never was a subject explicitly used, though the subject is
supposed to be things like rainclouds and so on.
SuStel
Stardate 2447.4