Am 20.11.2018 um 22:48 schrieb Felix Malmenbeck:
Do we know how {nel} is used in a sentence?
Good you ask, I almost forgot to include that, as it was not a complete message we received. Briefly, Okrand agreed that {nel} is used like {rur}. Background: At the qepHom, we played the game where you have to find two matching cards. (In German, we call that "memory", but Okrand told me that in English it's called "concentration".) I wanted to call the game something like {nelwI'} or {tInelmoH}, which Okrand rejected both, as it sounds strange. See the message here: ----------------------------------- As for {nel} -- The more I think about it, {tInel} is not so good. But {tInelmoH} is not so good either. You are correct -- {nel} works like {rur}. So you can say {A nel B} "B matches A." You can also say {nelchuq A B je} "A and B match each other." When you say {tInel}, the subject (unspoken, because it's an imperative) is "you," but what is the object? If you say {A yInel}, the subject is "you" and the object, presumably, is A, but this would mean something like "Match A!" (that is, it's a command for you to match A or match up with A. Similarly, {A B je tInel} is a command for you to be a match with both A and B. Let's look at the construction if imperative is not involved (and let's switch to singular). What would {Danel} mean? {A Danel} is something like "you match A." {A B je Danel} is "you match both A and B" (that is, you are a match with A and you are also a match with B). That's not what we're trying to say. So how about {nelmoH}? {A DanelmoH} might mean "you cause A to match," but match what? {A B je DanelmoH} might mean "you cause A and B to match," but that doesn't mean A and B are matching each other -- it means you cause A and B to match something else -- but what? The problem is that {nel} takes a subject and an object (the two things that match each other), but not a third thing. And you can't use the prefix trick with {nelmoH} because there is no non-third-person indirect object. So to give the command "Make A match B," you have to do it periphrastically. ----------------------------------- So I labeled the game with {chang'engmey}. -- Lieven L. Litaer aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany" http://www.klingonisch.de http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/StarTrekDiscovery