tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 06 15:22:17 2004

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Re: KLBC boghmo' 'IHrIStoS malop

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

From: "Steven Boozer" <[email protected]>

> SuStel:
> >/chaq tampu'/ could easily be translated as "Perhaps they had made an
> >exchange."  The explanation of that exchange then follows.
>
> I do like your suggestion, however my notes say that the gloss of {tam} is
> "substitute" (TKD, Eng. to Klingon side), not "make an exchange".  The
idea
> of "exchange" comes from this very card.  (Is the definition of {tam}
> expanded in KGT?)  A small distinction, to be sure, but possibly important
> since "substitute" and "exchange" are - or can be - transitive, but "make
> an exchange" is only intransitive.

TKD defines /tam/ as "exchange, substitute (v)."

I fail to see the conceptual difference between "The Klingon Empire
exchanges" and "The Klingon Empire makes an exchange."  My translation used
that wording to make the English flow better, as one typically doesn't speak
of "exchanging" intransitively (though Merriam-Webster does list it as a
valid usage), but as far as I can tell, the meaning is the same.

> >A lack of an object can be read as a general or indefinite object.  This
is
> >mentioned by Okrand in TKD, and is shown in some examples.  /SeymoH QeH/
> >"Anger excites."  Excites whom?  You COULD say, but the proverb doesn't
make
> >it explicit.  /tlhIngan SeymoH QeH/ "Anger excites a Klingon" is a good
> >sentence.
>
> True enough, except that {chaq tampu'} lacks both an explicit object as
> well as subject.

I don't see how that is significant.  The object is the issue, not the
subject.  TKD p. 33: "This set of prefixes [no-object] is also used when an
object is possible, but unknown or vague."  The 0-prefix is one of those
prefixes.

SuStel
Stardate 4016.1

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