[tlhIngan Hol] suffix {-jaj} with imperatives

[SuStel]

On 1/20/2022 8:20 AM, De'vID wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, 20 Jan 2022 at 14:07, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     Does it make sense to use {-jaj} with imperatives?
>
>
> ghobe'.
>
>     Soj yItIvjaj
>     may you enjoy the food!
>
> {yI-}
> "A special set of prefixes is used for imperatives, that is, verbs 
> giving commands. (TKD p.34)
>
> {-jaj}
> "This suffix is used to express a desire or wish on the part of the 
> speaker that something take place in the future." (TKD p. 175)
>
> How can something be both a command and a wish?
> {Soj yItIv} "I command you to enjoy the food"
> {Soj DatIvjaj "I wish that you enjoy the food"
> *{Soj yItIvjaj} "I command I wish you to enjoy the food"? "I wish that 
> I command that you enjoy the food"?
>
>     Although there's nothing grammatically wrong, something feels weird,
>     but I can't understand what it is exactly that seems strange.
>
>
> A sentence can be grammatically correct and also meaningless. What 
> would a combination of {yI-} with {-jaj} mean?

I agree, imperative *-jaj* makes no sense. Furthermore, mayqel may be 
misunderstanding /May you enjoy the food/ as an imperative. It's not; 
it's a subjunctive. There's no reason to force Klingon into the 
imperative to match the English, because the English is not in the 
imperative mood.

/May you enjoy the food/ is simply *Soj DatIvjaj.* In English, it's 
subjunctive; in Klingon, it's indicative, unless you want to call *-jaj* 
the optative mood. Since *-jaj* is used on independent clauses and seems 
to be incompatible with the imperative mood in Klingon, I think there's 
a good argument to make that *-jaj* does, indeed, create a new mood in 
Klingon. (There is a similar argument to be made that Klingon also has 
an interrogative mood.)

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name
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