tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 12 08:45:04 2003
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Re: object of {ra'}
From: <[email protected]>
> > What's the object of {ra'} "command"?
> >
> > yIHoH 'e' vIra'
> > yIHoH, qara'
>
> Canon for /ra'/:
> >>>
> qara'DI' as soon as I command you
>
> qara'pa' before I command you
>
> cha yIbaH qara'DI'
> qara'DI' cha yIbaH Fire the torpedoes at my command. [p. 62]
>
> chay' jura' What are your orders? (How do you command us?)
>
> [Korrd: petIv'egh. qara'qu'
> Enjoy yourselves. That's an order.]
>
>
> qIvo'rIt toQDuj 'oH tlhIngan wo' Duj pagh'e'. ra' qarghan HoD. DujvamDaq
> tlhIngan nuH tu'lu'bogh pov law' Hoch pov puS 'ej DujvamDaq 'op SuvwI'
> tu'lu'bogh po' law' tlhIngan yo' SuvwI' law' po' puS.
>
> The Imperial Klingon Vessel Pagh is a K'Vort-class Bird-of-Prey under the
> command of Captain Kargan. It has the best weapons and some of the finest
> warriors in the Klingon fleet.
> <<<
>
> These all look like the person/thing commanded is the object; not the
action
> they are to take.
And of course the problem is that the existence of the prefix trick makes
every single one of these examples ambiguous (except for /ra' qarghan HoD/,
which was already ambiguous). The correct object might be the commandee, or
it might be something else, but the prefix trick changes the prefix. We
know, for instance, that /qajatlh/ means "I speak to you," even though the
object of /jatlh/ is not the addressee.
In other words, we do not know for certain what the proper object of /ra'/
is.
SuStel
Stardate 3117.3