tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 26 13:58:29 2004

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: core semantic case roles: agent, patient, focus

...Paul ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

On Wed, 26 May 2004 [email protected] wrote:
> ghItlh "...Paul" <[email protected]>:
> > If the issue really boils down in the end to how the imperative prefixes
> > work (with or without various verb suffixes), perhaps it's because the
> > imperative prefix has a connotation of /-choH/, although it's not
> > explicit.  Turn it around -- does it really make sense to say /yIQong/?
> > Or does one really mean /yIQongchoH/, and we can attribute this to
> > "clipped Klingon"?
>
> I don't agree. {yI-} means {yI-} it doesn't mean {yI-verb-choH}. Yes, {yIQong}
> and {yIQongchoH} may have the same outcome but they don't mean exactly the same
> thing.
>
> The issue may be that English has a hard time dealing with the differences
> between {yIQong} and {yIQongchoH}, just as it has issues dealing with a word
> like {DochHom}. This is a down fall of English, not Klingon.

I would like for you to explain *how* you thing /yIQong/ and /yIQongchoH/
differ significantly.  I realize there are many constructs/concepts in
Klingon that don't have a good English *equivalent*, but that does not
mean that they cannot be *explained* in English.

> To me, when someone says "make sense" it often seems to mean "make sense in
> English". There are words in Klingon that follow the grammatical rules of the
> language but make no sense what so ever when you translate them into English.
> For example {Daghar} is a legal Klingon word, it's a verb with a prefix, but
> people will argue that I can't put {Da-} on {ghar}. Why? Because it doesn't
> make sense in English (and I would argue that it makes sense in Klingon too).

Ah, but you *can* explain what /Daghar/ means in English, you just can't
get away with a literal translation.  So my question still stands, really
-- do the imperative prefixes connote an intent for a verb to "start".  In
fact, would you EVER use /-choH/ on a verb if you put an imperative prefix
on it?

...Paul

 **        Have a question that reality just can't answer?        **
  ** Visit Project Galactic Guide http://www.galactic-guide.com/ **
                     "Isis! Isis! Ra! Ra! Ra!"

Back to archive top level