[tlhIngan Hol] be responsible

[Lieven L. Litaer]

Am 01.02.2018 um 17:50 schrieb SuStel:
>> [ngoy'] is also listed as meaning "be responsible"
[...]
>> What's the difference between [rang] and [ngoy'] in meaning and usage?

ja' SuStel:
> I'm going to guess the difference is in the object it can use. You can 
> say *Duj rang HoD* but not **Duj ngoy' HoD,* though you can say *Duj 
> rang HoD; ngoy' HoD.* But then, you can also say just *rang HoD.* I 
> wonder if Okrand forgot we had *ngoy'.*

I asked, and he did not. He explained what you said, that {rang} can 
have an object, and from his explanation, I also read that rang should 
not be used as an adjective. Say {Duj rang HoD ngoy} "The responsible 
captain is rsponsible for his ship".

Here's the entire message:
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I knew about {ngoy'} (so did Maltz).

The grammatical difference is that {rang} can take an object (the thing 
the subject is responsible for) -- and it would be weird for it not to 
have an object -- while {ngoy'} can't.

{rang} means things like "be in charge of, have authority over." {ngoy'} 
means things like "be accountable, be answerable."  It can also be used 
to mean "be responsible" in the sense of  "be trustworthy, sensible, 
dependable."

So a boss is responsible for his/her workers' actions (or responsible 
for the factory or whatever); he/she is in charge of the workplace, has 
authority over the workers, maybe is controlling the workers.  This is 
{rang}.

If something goes wrong, who's to blame? Who's accountable? Whom do the 
higher-ups come down hard on? The boss -- because he/she is the 
responsible party ({ngoy'}).

As the use of {ngoy'} in the TKW example shows, however, the meanings 
overlap, so the choice may be based on what the rest of the sentence is 
(is there an object or not?), not just meaning.

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-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.klingonisch.de
http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/Maltz