tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 17 12:32:22 2003
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RE: untranstvty
- From: Eric Andeen <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: untranstvty
- Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 10:26:13 -0700
> jatlh Quvar:
> > Can one say that *all* verbs which are translated "be xyz" are
> > intransitive? I noticed that most are, and I think all are. But I
> > might oversee something.
> >
> > be green
> > be big
> > be honored
> > be legal
> > be wrong
> > ...vs.
mulwI':
> I'm familiar with about 0,01 percent of Klingon vocabulary,
> but I don't think any verb that has a transitive *meaning*
> could be translated as "be xyz". Unless it's a verb with
> several meanings, some of them being transitive and others
> intransitive (like "shine" in English, hmm). I don't suppose
> we have any such words in Klingon, but I'm far from sure. Can
> anyone think of a word like that?
One word that is somewhat troublesome is <meQ>. I know of a few canon uses
offhand:
meQtaHbogh qachDaq Suv qoH neH.
Ha'DIbaH meQ Sop 'e' tIv tera'nganpu'. (This might not be exact)
So we know that <meQ> can act as a quality, and can also describe the
(ongoing) actoin of burning. To make things even worse, there's a bit in KGT
where Okrand compares something like <to'waQ meQ vutwI'> and <to'waQ mIQ
vutwI'>, implying <meQ> can also be used as a verb meaning "burn (something
else)".
I still believe, however, that most verbs are not so versatile.
pagh