On Tue, 9 Feb 2021 at 17:06, Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu> wrote:

From: SuStel
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 7:59 AM

> It's a Maltz-said-so-special-phrase-so-shut-up-and-don't-generalize case. It is described in The Klingon Way as aberrant grammar.For those without a copy of The Klingon Way handy:

QamvIS Hegh qaq law' torvIS yIn qaq puS

Better to die on our feet than live on our knees. (ST6/TKW)

(TKW p.95): More literally, this is “Dying while standing is preferable to living while kneeling.” The grammatical construction is a bit aberrant; one would expect {QamtaHvIS} and {tortaHvIS}. In proverbs, grammatical shortcuts are not uncommon. Even the Federation Standard might be considered somewhat incomplete. One would expect “It is better to die on our feet than to live on our knees.”

I don't read it as saying it's a "Maltz-said-so-special-phrase-so-shut-up-and-don't-generalize case". The above implies that this is the grammatical and expected sentence:
{QamtaHvIS Hegh qaq law' tortaHvIS yIn qaq puS}.

The grammar of the KGT sentence is only "a bit aberrant". It doesn't sound to me like the corrected version is particularly extraordinary. In particular, I don't see why this parallel wouldn't be grammatical:

{SuvtaHvIS batlh potlh law' yIntaHvIS tlhuH potlh puS} "Honour while fighting is more important than breath while living" or "It is more important to act honourably while we fight than to draw breath while we live." I wouldn't put a {-lu'} on the two {-taHvIS} clauses, if only because the KGT example doesn't either.

De'vID