[tlhIngan Hol] suffix {-jaj} with imperatives

[Will Martin]

Agreed. So, what is a wish? Basically, it’s a secular prayer. 

Prayers and wishes are attempts to command God, the gods, or fate, or at the very least SUGGEST what it/they might cause to occur. Given the lack of feedback, you either think wishes or prayers to yourself or say them aloud to whomever might be listening, but the message is aimed at perhaps vaguely imaginary entities that cannot be directly experienced.

A command does the same to the person(s) or sentient animal(s) you are speaking to.

So, make up your mind whom you are speaking to. It doesn’t make rational sense to make the same suggestion to both gods and persons…

Unless your meaning is really special, like:

qoHvam chuS yItlheDmoHjaj jay'!

[Would Fate, some god, or any person who can hear this please make this noisy fool go away?]

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On Jan 20, 2022, at 8:20 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 20 Jan 2022 at 14:07, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com <mailto: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?
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
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