[2671] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: SaQumqa'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Jan 20 12:36:16 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: mark <mark@dragonsys.COM>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 94 12:13:44 EST
Dochvam ghItlh charghwI':
>> {nIjeytaHjaj jaghlI' puj'e' je} "May your weak enemies (topic)
>> also defeat you."
...
> I was confused by the conjunction. ... TKD does list {je} as
> "also", though it is more commonly used as "and" joining two
> nouns. Placing a noun suffix on an adjectival verb in this
> position poses an interesting confusion, even when it is legal,
> especially when the root word can be either noun or verb. There
> is a tendency to try to replace the missing noun with the
> adjectival verb, exaserbated by the noun suffix on that verb.
This very construction is discussed in TKD 5.3 (p. 55):
The noun conjunction je has an additional function: when
it follows a verb, it means 'also, too'.
qaleghpu' je 'I also saw you, I saw you too'
So, is the sentence under discussion correct? I'd have to say no,
from a close reading of 5.3, because je doesn't follow a verb
(directly). And in that case, how do we express this? Can we use
je to mean 'also' only when there is no explicit subject?
What if we put je right after the verb, before the subject? That
gives us
nIjeytaHjaj je jaghlI' puj'e'
This still gives a chance of confusion, when the verb is
identical in form to a noun, but that's less frequent than in the
noun + verb-as-adjective construction, because in the latter the
use of suffixes on the verb is heavily restricted (4.4, last
paragraph).
-- marqem
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : mark@dragonsys.com
P.S.: This document was dictated with DragonDictate v2.0, even
the Klingon words (spelled out vocally: alpha-bravo-Charlie).
Net typing speed was 14 words per minute, including time for
thinking, revising, and 93% of the words were recognized
correctly.
