On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 11:48 AM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:

If I wanted to say I cause the Klingon to please himself, that could be tlhIngan vIbel'eghmoH jIH.

I'm unable to parse that in a way that makes sense. It seems to be
missing something, but I can't quite figure out what. The more I look
at it, the less I understand it.

I am doing something. Something is being done to the Klingon. Subject and object. The -'egh tells me that the performer of bel (and not the subject, as TKD says) pleases himself; the -moH tells me that the subject of the sentence causes the action to happen.

{bel} is "be pleased", so {bel'egh} is weird. It would have to be
{bel'eghmoH} to become "make himself pleased" or "please
himself"...but then there's no way to add another subject causing the
action without using an additional verb.

You're right, that example doesn't work. I think I was slipping into thinking bel was please.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name