[649] in tlhIngan-Hol
Infinitives
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Apr 22 11:57:42 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
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Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
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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: A.APPLEYARD@fs1.mt.umist.ac.uk
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: 22 Apr 93 10:19:39 GMT
> > (2) Another use of the passivizer suffix would be to distinguish passive
infinitive from active infinitive, e.g. `bachghach vineH'` = "I want to shoot"
from `bach-P-ghach vineH` = "I want to be shot".
> From: mark@cad.gatech.edu (Mark Reed)
> But Klingon does not use infinitives in this case; in fact, there's no
evidence of a Klingon concept of infinitive. The phrase "I want to shoot" is
expressed as "I want I shoot": `jIbach vIneH`, whereas "I want to be shot"
would be translated as "I want someone shoots me": `vIbachlu' vIneH`.
But, if `Y` is a verb, then `Y-ghach` <is> an infinitive, or can be used as
one - that is what a verb infinitive is, a noun meaning "the act of Y-ing". In
Classical Arabic and the Vedic dialect of Sanskrit (and in Tolkien's Quenya)
verb infinitives are declinable nouns that can also be used as "Y-ation", "the
act or state of Y-ing", "Y-ingness"; and in Latin and Greek and Germanic and
Classical Sanskrit the infinitive is a fossilized case form of some such noun.
> > (3) I wish there were separate suffixes for "agent" and "instrument",
e.g. "typist" and "typewriter", not just one suffix `-wi'` for both.
> It would be handy, agreed. English has the ambiguity as well, though; a
'typesetter' could be a person or a machine (or a software package), and -ist
is not universally applicable (typesettist?).
Could this be passed to Marc Okrand for his next edition? And/or could he
pass a message here via one of the pabpo'pu' authorizing any changes or
extensions that he sees fit?
> > (8) I am surprised not to find a separate distinct verb suffix for "must"
