tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 16 14:13:07 2003
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Re: 'aH tIQ
On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, SuSvaj wrote:
> At 03:25 PM 4/15/03 -0400, you wrote:
> >From: "...Paul" <[email protected]>
> > > But see, they're the same thing in this case. Otherwise, you do have a
> > > serious issue with sentence fragments. We have to identify what
> > > /wanI'vetlh/ *is*. Is it the event of an angry mob thinking or being able
> > > to think? If so, why use /-chugh/? The event is not "if a mob can
> > > think". In that case, it would be "QublaH ghom'a'. vaj qubbej
> > > wanI'vetlh" "Mobs can think. Then that event is rare."
>
> Now THAT sounds clunky to me. If you start out by saying "mobs can think"
> then it sounds like you are making a blanket statement that mobs are in
> fact able to think. If so, then why is the event rare?
That's exactly my point. The two-sentence version IS klunky, but it's
effectively identical to what you had written.
So, first off, your intent truly was to say that it was rare for *mobs to
think*, right? Therefore, DloraH's impression that /wanI'vetlh/ referred
to the looting was incorrect... Correct?
Now that we have that cleared up, I think we can go about looking at what
you wrote.
QublaHchugh ghom'a' QeH, vaj qubbej wanI'vetlh
"If angry mobs could think, then that event is certainly rare."
Let's do away with the pronoun-like use of /wanI'vetlh/ and get redundant.
If the /wanI'/ is a crowd thinking, you would end up with:
QublaHchugh ghom'a' QeH, vaj qubbej QublaHbogh ghom'a' QeH
"If angry mobs could think, then angry mobs that can think would certainly
be rare."
This looks a lot more like what you were shooting for, with one problem.
We've replaced /wanI'vetlh/ "that event" with something that I would argue
is not an event. It's a relative clause, which in English as well as
Klingon (TKD p64) is used as a noun. The proper pronoun would be /chaH/,
then:
QublaHchugh ghom'a', QeH, vaj qubbej chaH.
"If angry mobs could think, then they would certainly be rare."
Ah, now that is workable. I suppose maybe it's just that it seems really
odd to think of the event of "being able to think". I don't think of
ability as an event, though I suppose you could argue it's Klingon, so who
knows. It's kind of the equivalent of saying in English, "A mob being
able to think is a rare event." It kinda works, but it's probably
something an English teacher would take points off for. ;)
...Paul
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