[tlhIngan Hol] Adverbs with {-qu'}

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Fri Dec 2 06:29:33 PST 2016


On 12/2/2016 2:14 AM, PICHLMANN Christoph wrote:
> We have been told (in TKD, I think? Was it reinforced later, or taken away?) that klingons only use three classes of words:
>
> *) nouns
> *) verbs
> *) everything else (the "leftovers")
>
> Is this still correct?

Klingon grammarians classify Klingon words into only those three 
categories, yes. Federation grammarians divide the *chuvmey* up into 
subcategories to assist understanding. Both ways are just systems of 
organizing our understanding of the language and are not prescriptive.


> I'm asking because an "adverb" is something I'd like to put in with "verbs", but that is because of the name. Would klingons see an adverb as a form of verb, or as <<chuvmey>> that simply "looks and acts" as a verb, but doesn't follow all the rules.
>
> Because if an adverb is considered a verb, shouldn't all verb-affixes be allowed?
> But if it's a <<chuvmey>>, then it would make more sense to say that as a rule they don't have any affixes, but for this or that word it is known that it may take this or that suffix. They'd simply be special cases, as any language has.
> (Also, it would keep things simple, IMO.)

An adverb is not a verb; it is a leftover.

Wikipedia defines an adverb <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverb> as "a 
word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, noun 
phrase, clause, or sentence." It defines an adverbial 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverbial> as "a word (an adverb) or a 
group of words (an adverbial phrase or an adverbial clause) that 
modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb." Adverbs 
are a subset of adverbials; the latter has a broader meaning. /The 
Klingon Dictionary/ uses the word /adverbial/ throughout, not /adverb, 
/with two exceptions: *naDev, pa',* and *Dat* are nouns in Klingon but 
adverbs in English; and Klingon adverbials are called adverbs in section 
6.7 of the Addendum.

When Federation grammarians group some of the *chuvmey* into adverbials, 
they're saying that these are the words that modify the meaning of the 
verb or sentence, or can sometimes be used as standalone exclamations. 
There is an exceptional adverbial, *neH* /merely, only/ that modifies 
both verbs and nouns, and does so in a unique position (after); /TKD/ 
admits calling it an adverbial is awkward. The rest of the adverbials 
modify the sentence by going before the object-verb-subject or *law'/puS 
*structure.

Klingon grammarians obviously recognize the adverbial function; they 
simply don't give it a name. Some of the *chuvmey,* they say, act this 
way. /TKD/ speculates that Klingon grammarians lump all the *chuvmey* 
together for expediency.


> Unfortunately, both Klingonska and <<boQwI'>> only say "adverb":-(

Labeling them as adverbials would have been better.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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