[2853] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Translation help!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Jan 28 12:28:22 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: Will Martin <whm2m@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 11:59:27 EST
On Jan 28, 11:37am, "Matt Gomes" wrote:
> Subject: Re: Translation help!
>
> Reply to: RE>>Translation help!
>
> taH!
>
> Here's another question then...
>
> ja' marqoS:
>
> >quv means "be honored"; as an adjectival verb...
>
> Pardon my lack of knowledge of my own language (and it's probably
> really obvious), but... how do you know it's an adjectival verb (and what
> in the heck *is* and adjectival verb)?
>
> Qapla'!
>
> -mat
~mark, please forgive me. I SHOULD leave this for YOU to say, but on
this particular point, I was especially stubborn and stupid before it finally
sank in, and now that I've learned it, I feel it my personal mission to help
others stuck on the same point.
-mat, certain verbs can be used adjectivally (they can be used as
adjectives), if they FOLLOW a noun (the noun they, as adjectives, describe)
instead of PRECEEDING the noun (which would be their subject, if the verb
were being used as a verb). It has not been clearly described which verbs can
or cannot be used in this way.
Definitely, "stative" verbs (one clue is that their definitions tend to
include the word "be", as in {bIr} = "be cold") that feel right as adjectives
can be used in this way. Possibly, other intransitive verbs can be used this
way as well. Consider the following examples:
yIn gharghmey
The serpent worms are alive.
gharghmey yIn vISop vIneH
I want to eat living serpent worms.
Some people may argue that {yIn} is not a good example. Fine. My
forehead could use a little bashing today to make me know I'm alive. Still,
the point is that you take a verb which combines well with a noun as an
adjective and you place it AFTER that noun. It then makes no sense whatsoever
as a verb, so it HAS to be an adjective.
Read TKD 4.4 over and over until this makes sense.
charghwI'
