[tlhIngan Hol] Explicit pronouns again

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Sun Oct 11 07:00:10 PDT 2020


On 10/11/2020 9:45 AM, Luis Chaparro Caballero wrote:
> SuStel:
>
>> HIq vItlhutlh jIH
>> I drink the liquor.
>> In case anyone isn't sure who does the drinking, I make it clear that it's me.
> I'm probably confused, since I'm a beginner and I hope I'm not annoying you with my questions. If so, I'm sorry, maybe that's not the right forum for me. But in the thread I mention above, you told me there is no semantic difference between*yaS vIlegh*  and*yaS vIlegh jIH*, so I cannot understand your new example properly. Regarding what you told me in September I would have expected:*HIq vItlhutlh jIH'e'*. Adding only *jIH* without *-'e'* sounds for me 
> similar to that use of Spanish I spoke about in that thread (and 
> Lieven L. Litaer mentions here). In Duolingo we find this example: 
> *jIqet jIH 'ach bIyIt SoH* (translated: "*I* run but *you*  walk.")


A semantic difference between sentences is where the sentences mean 
something different. *HIq vItlhutlh jIH* means exactly the same thing as 
*HIq vItlhutlh;* I'm just adding the *jIH* to make especially sure you 
understood. If I had said *HIq vItlhutlh jIH'e',* it would have meant 
something slightly different: I, and not someone else, drink the liquor. 
There is no "and not someone else" element in *HIq vItlhutlh jIH.* 
That's the semantic difference.

Do not hold up Duolingo as an example of necessarily correct Klingon. It 
gets a lot of things wrong. Its translation in this case is poor, though 
not strictly wrong. It doesn't explain what those asterisks around the 
words actually MEAN.

The sentence *jIqet jIH 'ach bIyIt SoH* means /I run but you walk./ 
Including the pronouns does not automatically mean you're stressing 
them; it means you're being more clear than the minimum you need to be. 
It means exactly the same as *jIqet 'ach bIyIt. *If the sentence were 
*jIqet jIH'e' 'ach bIyIt SoH'e',* that would mean something different: 
/I (not someone else) run, but you (not someone else) walk./

Using explicit pronouns just means you're using extra clarity. Using 
*-'e'* means you're making the noun exclusive. Being extra clear doesn't 
change the meaning of the sentence; using *-'e'* does.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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