On 3/30/2022 7:39 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
chalqachDaq bIQaDbe' je even in a tower you are not safe
I think this sentence shows that the {je} "too" *can* indeed refer to the type-5'ed noun of the sentence too. I know that the translation is given as "even.." instead of "at a tower you aren't safe too", but obviously this is just a matter of choice of words. The only way I can understand it is "in a tower you aren't safe too", i.e. "among the various places where you aren't safe, is a tower too".
You are applying the grammar of the English sentence to the Klingon sentence, but the grammar of the Klingon sentence is different. In English, you can move the /even/ around to apply it to different elements. /Even in a tower, you are not safe. In a tower, even you are not safe. In a tower, you are not even safe./ In Klingon, you can't do this. You've either got the adverbial *vabDot,* or you've got the leftover *je* used adverbially, and each is fixed in position. Klingon can't /even/ individual parts of a sentence; it can only /even/ entire sentences.
So perhaps it is possible to say:
ngugh bIpujpu' DaH bIpuj je
You were weak then You're weak now too
The perfective on the first sentence is wrong. Being weak is a quality, not an action that is completed. There might be some unusual situations where being weak can be described as performed and completed, but this isn't one of them. *ngugh bIpuj. DaH bIpuj je.* The ability to decide which part of the sentence gets the /too/ in the English translation comes from context. The first sentence happened /at that time;/ the second sentence happens /now./ That's the only thing that changed between the two sentences, so obviously it's the element that is being /too/'d. But this isn't indicated in any way in the grammar of the second sentence. /At that time you were weak. "Now you are weak" is also a true statement./ -- SuStel http://trimboli.name