tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 16 18:06:19 2009
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Re: The meaning of -moH
On Oct 12, 2009, at 10:14 PM, Doq wrote:
> Interestingly, one sleeps when one is in a particular state. If I
> sleep, then I am sleeping. The definition could as easily been "be
> asleep" or "be sleeping", in which case, we could use it as an
> adjective, and it would be just like {tIn} or {bIr}.
The Klingon language concept of sleep might not match this view.
Consider that in English we speak of the weather as "being cold",
whereas in Spanish one says it "makes cold". Being hungry in English
is a state; it is an action in some Native American tongues. Things
like {Qong} and {Qam} aren't glossed in a way that shows them to be
verbs of quality, though we would have no problem with them if they
had been. While "be asleep" and "be standing" could work fine, it's
not what we are given to understand them to mean.
-- ghunchu'wI'