On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 3:46 PM SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:
I understand how the English means that; I don't see how the Klingon means that.
Simple: It means that, because Okrand has been using that Klingon construction to mean that. Either the Klingon sentences that use it are wrong, including the most famous Klingon aphorism, or he is using an additional meaning of *-meH*, besides "in order to", that he hasn't talked about. Until someone asks him about it, we're left to deduce its usage and meaning from the examples we have. I can think of four at the moment: 1. *qIpmeH Qatlh'a'** Difficult to hit?* (ST5) 2. *Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam **Today is a good day to die.* (TKW) 3. *tlhutlhmeH HIq ngeb qaq law' bIQ qaq puS* *Drinking fake ale is better than drinking water.* (TKW) 4. *QaQ qeylIS Duj / ghe'tor 'elmeH / yapbe' may' 'e' Sovchu'* *Kahless knows by instinct / A fight will not suffice / To enter the land of the dead.* (PB 96-96)
From the translations, we know that these constructions are intended to discuss the subject's suitability for achieving the purpose in the purpose clause. So this must be another use of purpose clauses, even if we don't know the details. It's still being used to talk about purposes, just in a different way, so it's possible he didn't think of it as a special case of purpose clauses that he needed to discuss explicitly.