[951] in tlhIngan-Hol
NulaDvIp!!!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Jun 1 22:40:08 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
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu (Erich Schneider)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 14:35:09 CDT
In-Reply-To: mark's message of Mon, 31 May 93 10:40:01 EST <9305311040.A06236@d
>quv X already means "be honored" or "X is honored" (where X is
>the subject of quv), so quvHa' = "X is dishonored". moH makes
>it causative ("(dis)honor X") and lu' turns that around into
>something semantically approximating a passive, "someone/-
>something (dis)honors X", where the "someone/something" is
>unspecified. But that is very nearly equivalent to what you had
>in the beginning, "X is dishonored)", quvHa': moH and lu'
>cancel each other out, at least with this verb. There could be
>a subtle difference in the results, but vIleghchu'be'.
There is a subtle difference. To me, "quvHa'" implies an intrinsic
characteristic: the subject is simply dishonorable, that's part of its
nature. "quvHa'moHlu'" implies the subject is dishonored, but that
something _made_ it that way.
One of the things I like about studying Klingon is discovering the
subtle things that can be conveyed syntactically. One of my favorites
is the distinction between the following three versions of "I caused
the officer's death" :
ra' Hegh vIqaSmoHpu'.
ra' Hegh vIqaSmoHta'.
ra' Hegh vIqaSmoH rIntaH.
Each expresses a different attitude by the speaker towards their
action. I imagine the last being spoken by the smug first officer,
going for a "field promotion", after the crew has discovered their
commander has been killed.
(Sorry for the tera'ngan - my copy of TKD is at home.)
-QumpIn 'avrIn (erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu)
