tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 15 14:11:13 2003
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Shooting space garbage
Voragh:
> > And the person or thing you shoot at is marked with {-Daq}.
> >
> > logh veQDaq bachchugh, yoH 'e' toblaHbe' SuvwI'.
> > Shooting space garbage is no test of a warrior's mettle. (ST5 notes)
marqoS:
>I'd say this is inconclusive. "Shooting at" something is distinct
>from "shooting" something in English, and we have the {-Daq} form
>glossed as "shooting at".
Where is this so glossed? The line is "shooting space garbage", not
"shooting AT space garbage".
Do you mean the difference between trying to hit or shooting in the general
direction of something vs. actually hitting it? In ST5 Klaa wasn't merely
taking idle pot shots at the probe while saying the line; he had already
hit and destroyed it.
> It's possible that some other syntax
>- perhaps {-vaD} - would be used when hitting the target is implied.
Well, we have this example:
yIQeqQo' neH. DoS yIqIp
Don't just aim; hit the target! TKW
I suppose if your distinction is critical to the speaker - and in Klaa's
case it wasn't, since the context was clear - then s/he would probably use
a perfective suffix to show that the action of shooting has been
accomplished. The imperfective would be used, inter alia, simply to state
the activity in general: i.e. What were you doing? The perfective to say
whether the activity was successfully accomplished: i.e. What did you get
done? Other aspectual languages routinely do this. Compare the classic
Russian examples:
*On sdaval ekzamen* - (imperfective, past tense)
"He took the exam"
*On sdal ekzamen* - (perfective, past tense)
"He took (and passed) the exam"
or
*Ona izuchala novye slova.* - (imperfective, past tense)
"She studied/was studying the new words."
*Ona izuchila novye slova.* - (perfective, past tense)
"She studied (and learned) the new words."
This is probably why Klaa did not use a perfective suffix, since he was
saying that the act of shooting - or shooting at - inert debris was a
trivial waste of his talents. As the next line shows, he wanted something
that shoots back and would therefore be more of a challenge, not to mention
more dangerous.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons