[87192] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: The topic marker -'e'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher Doty)
Wed Nov 25 22:13:34 2009
In-Reply-To: <4B0DF054.6050201@trimboli.name>
From: Christopher Doty <suomichris@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:11:57 -0800
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
<Qugh la'vaD QIn pav buSHa'pu' Qum yaS>?
On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 19:04, David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name> wrote:
> Christopher Doty wrote:
>> Okay, good, then we have been talking past each other a bit, I think.
>> So let me walk through my reasoning a bit...
>>
>> <yIH may'> is certainly "a tribble battle," or "a battle of tribbles."
>> We agree on that, I think.
>>
>> But the battle that I am envisioning has nothing to do with tribbles.
>> Tribbles is just being used as an insult. To circumlocute a bit,
>> imagine two warriors in the midst of a battle. One says to the other
>> (this sounds like the start of a joke, but it's not*):
>>
>> <may'vam 'oH may' quvHa''e'. yIHvaD 'oH yInob!>
>> "This battle is a dishonorable one. Give it to the tribbles."
>>
>> I'd rather like another verb here (more like leave behind... chuvmoH?
>> Meh. Anyway...).
>>
>> This is what I was getting at, not an issue of the battle being a
>> battle of tribbles, but that the battle is fit only tribbles to engage
>> it, so leave it that they might have it.
>>
>> I think maybe this thing I tried to say is weird, as it is sort of a
>> translation of idiomatic English. Let's try something else.
>>
>> What if we take the canon
>>
>> <Qugh la'vaD QIn pav>
>> Urgent message for Commander Kruge.
>>
>> And think of a more extended context. What if I said:
>>
>> "The transmission is an urgent message for Commander Kruge."
>> <Qugh la'vaD QIn pav 'oH jabbI'ID'e'>
>>
>> Does this strike you as wrong for the same reason, when there is a
>> clear recipient of an actual concrete thing?
>
> Yes. It is the urgent message that is intended for Kruge, not the fact
> that "it is" ('oH) an urgent message.
>
> How would you say "The communications officer ignored an urgent message
> for Commander Kruge"?
>
> --
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