[Tlhingan-hol] Scope of Klingon Negation

[Lieven]

jIghItlh:
>> chotIchmo' jIQeHbe'

ghItlh SapIr:
> It took me a while to interpret this sentence, because I kept wanting to read it as "Because you insulted me, I am not angry",
when what Lieven was trying to say (AFAICT) was "I am not angry because 
you insulted me", i.e. "It is false that (I am angry because you 
insulted me)".

Indeed, you can read it like "I am not angry, and this happened because 
you insulted me". The intended meaning was "I am not angry about the 
fact that you insulted me."

I understand that this phrase is ambiguous, and even yor english 
translation still is ambigous. You understood it perfectly anyway :-)

To make a clearer phrase, I was going to say what you wrote:
   {chotIch 'ach jIQeHbe'.}
   "You insulted me, but I'm not angry"

> Do we have any canonical examples in which the {be'} suffix's meaning can scope over both the verb to which it is attached, and a clause subordinated by a type 9 suffix?

So what you're asking for is (chotIchmo' jIQeH)be'.


-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
Grammarian of the KLI
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