tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 03 08:38:29 2006

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Re: KLBC

Steven Boozer ([email protected])



QeS:
> >>> I'm not sure that true adverbs can modify each other;
> >>> I know of no canon evidence either way.

ter'eS:
>I never said that adverbs modify each other; I said that
>you can have multiple adverbs each modifying the verb.

Voragh:
> > I found two, though one is poetry/song:
> >
> > batlh maHeghbej 'ej yo' qIjDaq vavpu'ma' DImuv.
> >  pa' reH maSuvtaHqu'
> > Then we die with honor and join our fathers in the
> >  Black Fleet where we battle forever. (Anthem)

ghunchu'wI':
> >> How are the adverbs modifying each other here? Each is
> >> in its own sentence and has no apparent connection to the
> >> other.

Voragh:
> > I was looking at {pa' reH ...} but now realize that {pa'} is
> > not an adverbial in Klingon, but a noun used as a place-stamp.

ter'eS:
>But if it isn't functioning adverbially, I don't
>know what you'd say it's doing there.

As I mentioned before, I agree with your analysis that time- and 
place-stamps are certainly adverbial phrases, but they're not "true 
adverbs" - i.e. labeled "(adv)" in TKD - which is what QeS was looking 
for.  Since the Anthem example is now irrelevant, we're left with only one 
example of two adverbials used together:

    ghaytanHa' jay'
    Not bloody likely! (RT)

Note (1) this is an exclamation; (3) there is no verb for either adverbial 
to modify (though {jay'} is modifying {ghaytanHa'}); and (2) {jay'} is 
unusual among the adverbials anyway:

    This word not only intensifies whatever is being said, it
    turns the whole phrase into an invective. Alone among the
    adverbials, {jay'} always comes at the end of the sentence.
    (TKD 177)

These points probably disqualify the Radio Times example as well.  QeS 
seems to be right.

It may be that the way to use two adverbials with the same verb is seen in 
this single example:

    pIj maSuvpu', batlh maSuvpu' 'ej maQapbejta'!
    In our many battles, we have fought with honor and achieved
    VICTORY!  (Hallmark)

Notice that Okrand repeated the verb rather than have two adverbials follow 
each other directly.  Multiple clauses repeating an element is fairly 
common in Klingon sentences, whereas in English such repetition would sound 
awkward and redundant.  We've seen other examples of this sort of 
repetition.  (I'll let someone else dig those up.)  Perhaps we should call 
this stylistic devise a sort of grammatical  {bIraqlul} (the characteristic 
redundancy in Klingon body parts)?



--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons






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