[87025] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Comparatives
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Trimboli)
Tue Nov 24 13:45:51 2009
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:43:10 -0500
From: David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name>
In-reply-to: <1cb7130b0911241026h35d0c02amebf66384fdf005f3@mail.gmail.com>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Tracy Canfield wrote:
> For comparatives, TKD uses the construction
>
> A Q law' B Q puS
>
> In all the examples, A and B are nouns. If you're comparing, for
> example, "we" and "you", do you have to include the pronouns, or is it
> okay to just use prefixes on the verbs?
>
> Can you say
>
> maDo' law' SuDo' puS
>
> or does it have to be
>
> maH maDo' law' tlIH SuDo' puS
>
> or even
>
> maH Do' law' tlIH Do' puS
>
> without agreement between Do' and what would otherwise be its subject?
The "A Q" and "B Q" parts are not clauses. Only your last example is
correct: {maH Do' law' tlhIH Do' puS} "we are more fortunate than you."
A and B must be noun phrases; Q must be a verb of quality without prefix
or suffixes. These elements are not related to each other beyond being
part of the comparative sentence.
The comparative/superlative construction is rather fixed in structure,
although some allowed variations are given in KGT. These variations
don't change the structure of the construction, only the words and order
used.
Note that when I say "must" above, I mean that out of all of the
examples, and there are quite a few, none have ever done otherwise
(except one example in TKW, from ST6, which is noted as being special
grammar left over from an older version of Klingon).
The example I know of offhand with a pronoun in a comparison (actually a
superlative) is
qIbDaq SuvwI''e' SoH Dun law' Hoch Dun puS.
You would be the greatest warrior in the galaxy. (ST5)
--
SuStel
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