[80] in tlhIngan-Hol
New verbs with -moH
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 15:21:52 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
From: gt5878b@cad.gatech.edu (Charles Edward Maise)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 91 5:12:22 EST
Mark Reed, replying to Kevin Iga, said:
>The fact that "teach" is really "cause to learn" doesn't affect the
>construction; "ghojmoH" is only one verb in Klingon, with the meaning of
>"teach".
>The "-moH" construct is used to form a new verb, not to combine
>sentences. "nobmoH" is "cause to give"; but if you need multiple objects, the
n
>you really don't have a single verb anymore. "I caused torgh to give qeng a
>book" would be translated using the complex sentence constructions:
> qengvaD paq nobpu' torgh 'e' vIqaSmoH.
This deserves a bit more explanation. From the dictionary:
ghuH be alerted to, prepare for
ghuHmoH alert, warn
Hegh die
HeghmoH be fatal
mIS be confused
mISmoH confuse
qaw remember
qawmoH remind
vem cease sleeping
vemmoH wake (someone) up
If you were to interpret ghuHmoH as "cause to be alerted to," you might
translate
qul'a' vIghuHmoHpu'
as "I caused (it) to be alerted to the blaze." Actually, it means "I warned
the blaze" which is nonsensical.
Adding -moH to an intransitive verb such as "be confused" or "cease sleeping"
will result in a phrase of the form "cause (something) to <verb>." It's
pretty easy to turn this into a transitive verb, e.g. "cause (someone)
to cease sleeping" becomes "awaken (someone)."
Adding -moH to a transitive verb gets confusing. "learn (something)" becomes
"cause (someone) to learn (something)", "remember (something)" becomes
"cause (someone) to remember (something)." Which is the direct object of
the new verb, someone or something?
The dictionary provides a translation for some words constructed with -moH.
Some are clearer than others as to which of the two objects in the "cause
(something) to do (something)" phrase should be the direct object. The D.O.
of "alert" has to be the person being alerted. The other object has to go
in a prepositional construction ("about the blaze").
We seem to be in a consensus about "teach": the subject being taught (if any)
is the direct object, and the person being taught (if any) takes -vaD.
What about -moH added to transitive verbs for which the dictionary doesn't
have a translation? Which object is the direct object in, say, "He
causes the officer to arrest the suspect?" As Mark points out, in such
cases where there is no direct translation for the new verb, and you
are left with two objects, you should translate it as a compound sentence
rather than a single verb with -moH.
One note: "cause (someone) to die" becomes not the transitive "kill (someone)"
that you might expect, but the intransitive "be fatal." To say "be fatal
to someone," "someone" should take -vaD.
A question: for words ending in -moH in the dictionary, should the word
be treated as a unit to which other suffixes may be added, or as the root
word with the suffix -moH which should come in the standard place as dictated
by suffix order? I.e. which is correct:
jIyonmoH'egh "I satisfy myself" or
jIyon'eghmoH "I cause myself to be satisfied"
HIpwIj vItuQmoHqangbe' "I am unwilling to put on my uniform."
HIpwiJ vItuQqangbe'moH "I am unwilling to cause (me?) to wear my uniform."
Standard Disclaimer: I am not a grammarian, so this is unofficial.
Eddie Maise gt5878b@cad.gatech.edu bIjeghbe'chugh vaj Daqotlhlu'!
