tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 25 14:42:04 1997
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Question words
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Question words
- Date: Tue, 24 Jun 97 22:33:02 UT
jatlh peHruS:
> You appear to be saying that tlhIngan Hol question words may be used ONLY to
> ASK a question. If you are correct, this is the first of 28 languages
> (admittedly the other 27 are Terran) I have studied (I'm nowhere near fluent
> in most of them) in which question words may not be used subordinately.
>
> Let's use English:
>
> Why are you going? I don't why you are going.
> What are you cooking? I see what you are cooking.
> How do you store tribbles? The man knows how you store tribbles.
>
> tlhIngan Hol is not Terran. It is not like anything Terran. Still, how can
> we presuppose that we cannot use question words this way? I await your
> debate.
I admit, I don't have much. Firstly, the mere fact that TKD never addresses
anything like this says a lot. It shows question words being used only in
questions. Not one whiff of a subordinate clause.
Secondly, my instincts turn me away from it. It seems highly rhetorical to
me, and I believe that Klingons do not speak in rhetoric. A Sentence As
Object is composed of two sentences, and using a Question as Object would
require that one ask a question without necessarily expecting an answer.
Consider this question as object:
chay' qet ghaH 'e' vIlegh
I can imagine the Klingon being spoken to hearing {chay' qet ghaH} and take a
breath to answer, only to be cut of by his companion's {'e' vIlegh}.
Thirdly, there's always a way to reword the idea. {qetmeH mIwDaq vIlegh} or
even qetlI'ghach vIlegh} would be perfectly legal.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97481.0