tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 18 09:04:34 2009

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RE: use of DIng

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Frankly, I think that's a terrible way to reason out linguistic puzzles.
Even if one assumed a homogeneous culture, one's language need not
necessarily mimic it by subjective example.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: use of DIng
> From: Terrence Donnelly <[email protected]>
> Date: Fri, September 18, 2009 10:44 am
> To: [email protected]
> 
> 
> I'm tending to think you are right on philosophical grounds: since Klingons prefer action, they probably prefer to be the actor rather than the one acted upon, so the simple stem of most verbs would describe the subject as performing (or experiencing) the verb (the intransitive usage), with {-moH} available for when you want to refer to the agency that causes them to undergo the verb (transitive). By that reasoning, for verbs we have no canon for that can go either way in English, my default assumption would be that they are intransitive in Klingon. If my memory wasn't so bad, I'd cite some examples!
> 
> -- ter'eS
> 
> --- On Fri, 9/18/09, Steven Boozer <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> > From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
> > Subject: RE: use of DIng
> > To: "'[email protected]'" <[email protected]>
> > Date: Friday, September 18, 2009, 8:30 AM
> > ter'eS:
> > >> Does anyone recall if we know whether {DIng} is
> > transitive or
> > >> intransitive? Is the subject the thing turned or
> > the person who 
> > >> turns the thing?
> > 
> > lay'tel SIvten:
> > >I couldn't find any canon for it. Since merely adding
> > {-moH} would 
> > >make it the transitive version, I hope it's the
> > intransitive meaning.
> > >If it's the transitive meaning already, then it's a lot
> > harder to 
> > >get the intransitive meaning.
> > 
> > There's no canon for {Ding} "spin" - or {tlhe'} "turn"
> > either. Like lay'SIv, I imagine they both work like
> > {jIr} "rotate, twirl" vs. {jIrmoH} "twirl X, cause X to
> > rotate". (The context in KGT p.59-60 was specifically
> > about bat'leth movements, but I imagine {jIrmoH} can be used
> > for other things as well.)
> > 
> >  
> > -- 
> > Voragh      Â
> > Â Â Â Â Â Â 
> > Canon Master of the Klingons
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >

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