<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/18/2019 3:06 PM, Will Martin
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:54FB8F30-B7D1-414E-B28D-BE14E661ED48@mac.com">
<div class="">It might be good to rethink the entire project. A
long string of {-lu’} or {vay’} is odd because on one hand, you
want the subject to be unspecified, but on the other hand, you
want to be talking about the same unspecified entity repeatedly.
If it were truly unspecified, then there’s no guarantee that the
second statement is about the same entity as the first one.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Klingon seems to be willing to work with a string of <b>-lu'</b>
verbs, as exhibited in this proverb: <b>noq QapmeH wo'
Qaw'lu'chugh yay chavbe'lu' 'ej wo' choqmeH may' DoHlu'chugh
lujbe'lu'</b><i> Destroying an empire to win a war is no
victory, and ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat. </i>(TKW)<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:54FB8F30-B7D1-414E-B28D-BE14E661ED48@mac.com">
<div class="">It just doesn’t come across as direct, blunt speech.
I’m suspecting it would test a listener’s patience.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Klingon should be direct, but I don't think it has to be blunt.
To extend the metaphor, they might like sharp, cutting remarks. In
any case, I'm not sure why an indefinite subject would necessarily
sound indirect to a Klingon's ear.<br>
</p>
<p>I also don't think it would test a listener's patience. As long
as the listener knows you're not talking about a specific subject,
they can just hear <b>-lu'</b> and think "subject not important
here." Constant passive voice or stilted, impersonal <i>one</i>
in English is tiresome, but that's because we have more common and
active ways to say these things. Klingon indefinite subject is not
passive.<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
</body>
</html>