[531] in tlhIngan-Hol
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 9 14:54:51 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: Captain Krankor <krankor@codex.prds.cdx.mot.com>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 93 13:17:12 -0400
Boy, what is going on here? It keeps dropping half my message. Here is repost
#2. This time I've slightly reformatted the message in the hopes that it will
like it better now.
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To: tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us
Subject: -ghach
I'm trying to get caught up on the list (I'm about 22 messages behind), so I'm
sure I'm not going to address everything I should or would like to, but I'll
try to at least pop a few off.
trI'Qal asked about the troublesome -ghach. We've discussed this here some
before, but I'll just briefly summerize my take on it:
1) It doesn't actually say you CAN'T put -ghach on a simple (suffix-less) verb,
and we don't really have any examples of other suffixes being restricted on the
type of verbs they can go on, so it would appear that, yes, you can put -ghach
on any simple verb.
2) It also says that many simple verbs have the identical word as the noun
form. Absolutely no rule is given to guide us in when to assume that such a
noun exists. Presumably, when such a noun *does* exist, one probably does
*not* use a -ghach construction.
So, I personally have adopted a 3 point strategy:
1) If the verb really lends itself to noun-izing, i.e. it is very obvious what
the noun would mean, I just assume it has a direct noun form. But, to avoid
confusing people, I try to find a way to put an explicit noun suffix of some
kind on the word, to show people 'hey, I'm using this as a noun!'
2) If the verb does not point at a clear corresponding noun, or if the noun
form might be ambiguous, I'll assume there is no direct noun, and use -ghach
on the simple verb.
3) If the conditions for point 1) apply, but there's no good way to add any
kind of a noun-suffix, I'll often put the -ghach on anyway. You really don't
want to presume a noun form but give the reader no clue that that's what you
did, cuz when they go to look it up, all they'll find is the verb.
If you wanna be absolutely pure, you can usually find SOME kind of verb suffix
to stick on the verb before adding -ghach, that won't significantly change the
meaning. -taH is often a good candidate.
--Captain Krankor
