tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 06 11:54:16 2010
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RE: qoSwIj
Mark J. Reed:
>>> I would tend to question the translation {DaHjaj qoSwIj 'oH}. Â"Today
>>> it is my birthday" is fine in English, but it's one of those weird
>>> idiomatic uses of "it" that lacks an antecedent (like "It's hot out",
>>> "It's seven o'clock"). ÂDo we have evidence that Klingon does
>>> something similar?
Voragh:
>> {'oH} almost always refers to an actual, tangible object but I did find
>> four exceptions:
>>
>> ÂbortaS nIvqu' 'oH bortaS'e'
>> ÂRevenge is the best revenge. (TKW)
>>
>> ÂSajlIj 'oHbe' quvwIj'e'
>> ÂMy honor is not your play-thing.
>> Â(lit. "My honor is not your pet.") (STConst p.259)
>>
>> ÂveH Qav 'oH logh'e'
>> Âspace--the final frontier (S99)
>>
>> ÂmeyrI'Daq 'oHtaH gho'e'
>> ÂThe circle is in the square. (qep'a' 2005)
Mark J. Reed:
>But in each case, regardless of the tangibility or concreteness of the
>antecedent noun, there is one: something you can identify as the noun
>that 'it' is standing for. In a sentence like "Today, it is my
>birthday", there is not really a noun that fits where the "it" is.
>"Today, the day is my birthday"? "Today, the date is my birthday"?
>
>Instead, the "it" is just a place holder, because "Today, my birthday
>is." doesn't work as an English sentence (unless it's Yoda-speak for
>"My birthday is today." - but there, "today" is a noun instead of an
>adverb).
Now I understand your point. In fact, we know {'oH} is not used as an indefinite/unknown subject in this way, at least when talking about the weather. Okrand spoke to DloraH (May 1998) about how to say "It's raining":
It rained a few times during the weekend, so we were put into the
situation to discuss it. {SIS}. {SISqu'}. {SIStaH}. {SISchoH}. All
correct. {SISlu'}, although grammatically correct, he didn't parti-
cularly like... You can also give it an object and say things like
the clouds rained down cats and dogs... or something like that; you
get the idea. But when Marc and I went outside and drops of water
were falling on us, he looked up and simply said "{SIS}".
Presumably this works with other weather verbs ({peD} "snow", jev "storm", etc.) and may also work with the verbs {tuj} "be hot" and {bIr} "be cold",, at least when talking about the weather:
? DaHjaj tujqu'
It's very hot today.
vs.
tujqu' 'oH
It [e.g. the engine] is very hot.
although Okrand cautions:
KGT 105: When a Federation citizen on Earth says "It's rather chilly in this room," he or she may really mean "I am uncomfortably cold and want somebody to close the window." The Klingon sentence {pa'vamDaq jIbIr} means "I am cold in this room" - nothing more, nothing less. If it is desirable to close the window, the Klingon will simply say, {Qorwagh yISoQmoH} ("Close the window!").
Note that this describes Klingon culture/behavior, not Klingon grammar per se.
--
Voragh
Canon Master of the Klingons