tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 11 20:04:55 2007

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Re: vIghro'vetlh

Alan Anderson ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Data: "I find it extremely difficult to predict what you will find  
acceptable."

ja' mI'qey:
>>> Would the following compromise be
>>> acceptable?
>>>
>>>     {nuq Dalajqang?  jIloymeH Qatlhqu' 'e' vItu'.}
>>
>> The {'e' vItu'} part just seems superfluous.  What
>> does it add to the
>> sentence besides wordiness?
>
> It adds the idea that the difficulty mentioned is
> specifically the speaker's;

That idea is already present in the {jIloymeH}, so it seems to me  
that {'e' vItu'} adds nothing.

> for all we know,
> predicting Spot's likes and dislikes may be dirt
> simple for anyone else.

If it had said {loylu'meH}, you would be correct, and the {vItu'}  
would be helpful.

> (Assuming that the fact that
> it's in the original, where it's no more or less
> superfluous than it is my Klingon version, isn't a
> sufficient point in its favor.)

The original says "difficult to predict", so "I find it extremely  
difficult" is necessary to carry the idea that the speaker is the one  
experiencing the difficulty.  If it had said "difficult for me to  
predict", the "I find" would indeed have been superflous.

But, as I pointed out before, Data is famous for being unnecessarily  
wordy.  Consider the simplest Klingon translation for "That would be  
acceptable."

{maj.}

-- ghunchu'wI'

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