[tlhIngan Hol] Go and come, know, impersonal verbs

[De'vID]

On Tue, Apr 11, 2023 at 6:45 PM luis.chaparro--- via tlhIngan-Hol <
tlhingan-hol at lists.kli.org> wrote:

> Since I'm not a native English speaker, I'm not totally sure if I
> understand it right. My question is: Could a sentence like *qaSuchmeH tlhoy
> jIpaS* also work? I.e. using *tlhoy* to render the meaning *I was too late
> to visit you (so I didn't visit you)*. As far as I know the word *tlhoy*
> didn't exist yet at the time the message was written, right?
>

There are two parts to your question:
* {tlhoy jIpaS} "I'm excessively late" would work to express being late
past some cutoff point
* {qaSuchmeH tlhoy jIpaS} would *not* work for your meaning of "I was too
late to visit you", for the same reason which was the question that sparked
that reply from Marc Okrand: "this sounds like I'm saying that I was
intentionally very [or: excessively] late with the goal of my tardiness
being that I visit you"

Marc Okrand wrote (of {qaSuchmeH jIpaSqu'}):
"Perhaps, then, a better English rendition of the Klingon sentence is "In
order for me to visit you, I'll be very late."   This suggests that the
visit did or will take place (though later, perhaps, than desired), which
is not the intended meaning."

Analogously, {qaSuchmeH tlhoy jIpaS} would mean "In order for me to visit
you, I'll be excessively late". That is, it suggests that the visit did or
will take place, and that it took place (or will take place) past some
cutoff point.

Imagine if you had a friend who's always late to events, like she shows up
to a party after everyone else has left. Normally, you miss her at the
party because you show up on time, and leave before she arrives. But *in
order to meet with her*, you deliberately show up to the party excessively
late, when you know she will be there. That's the scenario that this
sentence implies.

-- 
De'vID
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