Writing continuously in irrealis
There is a problem I've been having, which I don't know how to overcome. If I want to write a story in english, a story written in irrealis (if that's how we say it), then I can write: "If I was a giant, and I was living in a castle above the clouds, I would be happy. And if my kingdom had many soft and furry cats.." In klingon, in order to write something as the above, we have the {net jalchugh}. However, (and here is my problem), if I want to write an entire story in irrealis, then what do I do ? Do I place the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ? In the above example would I need to write {I am a giant net jalchugh, and I live in a castle above the clouds net jalchugh, I am happy net jalchugh..} ? Wouldn't this make the reader "tired", reading the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ? Is there any other way of approaching this ? ~ nI'ghma
Like so much of Klingon grammar, Okrand’s examples were short single sentence, not connected text, so we don’t really know. I would mark the first sentence/clause with {net jalchugh} as sort of an “irrealis stamp” to set the scene for the entire sentence/paragraph/story, etc.– like a time stamp or place stamp. E.g. I am a giant {net jalchugh}: Because I live in a castle above the clouds, I am happy. Etc. I’m sure the others will have their own suggestions. --Voragh From: mayqel qunenoS There is a problem I've been having, which I don't know how to overcome. If I want to write a story in english, a story written in irrealis (if that's how we say it), then I can write: "If I was a giant, and I was living in a castle above the clouds, I would be happy. And if my kingdom had many soft and furry cats.." In Klingon, in order to write something as the above, we have the {net jalchugh}. However, (and here is my problem), if I want to write an entire story in irrealis, then what do I do ? Do I place the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ? In the above example would I need to write {I am a giant net jalchugh, and I live in a castle above the clouds net jalchugh, I am happy net jalchugh..} ? Wouldn't this make the reader "tired", reading the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ? Is there any other way of approaching this ? ~ nI'ghma
On 2/9/2018 2:37 PM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
There is a problem I've been having, which I don't know how to overcome.
If I want to write a story in english, a story written in irrealis (if that's how we say it), then I can write:
"If I was a giant, and I was living in a castle above the clouds, I would be happy. And if my kingdom had many soft and furry cats.."
In klingon, in order to write something as the above, we have the {net jalchugh}.
However, (and here is my problem), if I want to write an entire story in irrealis, then what do I do ? Do I place the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ?
In the above example would I need to write {I am a giant net jalchugh, and I live in a castle above the clouds net jalchugh, I am happy net jalchugh..} ?
Wouldn't this make the reader "tired", reading the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ?
Is there any other way of approaching this ?
The Klingon *net jalchugh* isn't a grammatical mood; it just sets up the reader or listener to understand that what you're about to talk about is a counterfactual situation. Once the audience understands this, forget about it. But every time you offer a new ounterfactual idea, you have to use it again. *wochqu'wI' jIH net jalchugh 'ej 'eng Dung jem'IH vIDab net jalchugh, jIQuch. SepwIjDaq veD tun ghajbogh vIghro' law' tu'lu' net jalchugh...* Okrand himself gave an example of this when he explained *net jalchugh:* *tlhIngan SoH net jalchugh, qagh DatIv * /If you were a Klingon, you would enjoy gagh/ Notice that Okrand says *net jalchugh* is used for counterfactual ideas, not hypothetical ideas. The above sentence, he says, implies that you are /not/ a Klingon, not that you might be a Klingon. He compares this idea of counterfactual versus hypothetical: *qaghwIj DaSopchugh, qaHoH * /If you eat my gagh, I'll kill you./ *qaghwIj DaSop net jalchugh, qaHoH * /If you were eating my gagh, I would kill you / The first//one is hypothetical: you might eat my gagh. The second is counterfactual: you're not eating my gagh, but if you were... So my above Klingon translation of your sentence assumes I am /not/ a giant/,/ that I am /not/ living in a castle above the clouds, and that there are /not/ many soft, furry cats in my kingdom. But if that were true... // By the way, while your English sentence is colloquially fine, more formally English uses a subjunctive mood: /If I *were* a giant, and if I *were* living in a castle above the clouds, I *would be* happy. And if my kingdom *had* many soft and furry cats... /This is not the indicative past tense; it is the subjunctive mood. Most people nowadays ignore the subjunctive mood in English, in much the same way they ignore the word /whom./ -- SuStel http://trimboli.name
On Fri, Feb 9, 2018 at 2:37 PM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun@gmail.com> wrote:
Wouldn't this make the reader "tired", reading the {net jalchugh} after each and every sentence ?
Probably. But if the story were short enough, or perhaps turned into a poem of some kind, the repeated *net jalchugh* could function as a sort of repeated motif. For instance, each part could be structured with some increasingly hopeful and elaborate wish, with the final line of each stanza as *net jalchugh jIQuch*. This would continually remind the reader that the things the narrator is hoping for are untrue, and hint at the narrator's unhappiness. By structuring the story or poem around the repeated *net jalchugh*, the phrase becomes a common thread through the story, holding it together and emphasizing the theme. Alternately, if your story is long enough, you could just drop the explicit counterfactual entirely. Even if the first sentence of your story is *wochqu'wI' jIH 'ej 'engmey Dung jem'IH vIDab, vaj jIQuch.*, they would probably know that you are not actually a giant living in a castle in the clouds. That's how fiction works, after all.
participants (4)
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mayqel qunenoS -
nIqolay Q -
Steven Boozer -
SuStel