tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Sep 14 06:55:12 2006
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Type 5s as relative heads
- From: "QeS 'utlh" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Type 5s as relative heads
- Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:54:44 +1000
- Bcc:
While looking for examples for my previous email, I came across this little
gem from TKW again:
meQtaHbogh qachDaq Suv qoH neH (TKW 111)
Only a fool fights in a burning house.
My question is: What on earth are we supposed to do with that? It doesn't
parse neatly (I would have expected {meQtaHvIS}), and Okrand has pretty much
explicitly said that indirect objects don't work well with {-bogh}:
Okrand: I don't think Klingon fits into this [relative clause accessibility]
hierarchy. Well, it does, if you want to look at it that way. I couldn't
make the {bogh} thing work for me with anything other than subject or
object.
...
HQ: So only the subject or object of a verb can be the headnoun of a
relative clause. It doesn't allow possessing nouns either?
MO: Right.
(HQ v4n2p5)
That was in 1995. TKW was released in 1996. I've also found this text from
S99 (1993) which, I have to be honest, I've been having some trouble
parsing, but which seems to contain another relative clause whose head is a
noun plus {-Daq}. My translation is underneath:
qIb HeHDaq, 'u' SepmeyDaq Sovbe'lu'bogh lenglu'meH He ghoSlu'bogh retlhDaq
'oHtaH.
On the edge of the galaxy, they are beside a travelled path in order to
journey in regions of the galaxy which are unknown. (S99)
First off, is my translation right? Secondly, is this, as I suspect, an
example of a relative clause with a {-Daq} noun as its "head"? Thirdly, is a
relative clause like that in ?{Qe'Daq vIparbogh qaqIHpu'} "I met you in a
restaurant I didn't like" something that you would expect or accept in
conversational Klingon? I understand that the canon I've given might only be
examples of Okrand's English background seeping through; I'm merely
interested, as I hadn't noticed the oddity of these examples before.
Savan,
QeS 'utlh
tlhIngan Hol yejHaD pabpo' / Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute
not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
- Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh
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