tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 09 21:15:34 1997

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Re: plans

ghItlh ghunchu'wI':

>>o See the innumerable posts which demonstrate that objects must be nouns,
>>statements are capable of being nouns, and questions are not.
>
>Well, I'm not *completely* sure that a question can never be the object of
>another sentence. But I haven't yet seen one that makes real grammatical
>sense, with the possible exception of questions using the {-'a'} suffix.
>Somehow, {yuch Soppu''a' puq 'e' vISovbe'} doesn't quite sound wrong, but
>{yuch Soppu' puq 'e' vISovbe'} seems to carry the same idea.

I disagree. <yuch Soppu''a' puq 'e' vISovbe'> is still a question as
object - I couldn't accept it as High Klingon. How any of you talk to each
other is your own business, but this is simply unsupportable for our
purposes here. I would be more likely to accept it if it were said like
<yuch Soppu''a' puq? 'e' vISovbe'.> Still, this is redundant. Your second
example is entirely acceptable, as would be <chaq yuch Soppu' puq 'ach
vISovbe'>  or similar constructions. (The only exception I've seen to all of
this is the non-exception of  a verb-of-saying construction. Perhaps also we
could use a sentence as a sentence - <*nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'* 'e' vISov> =?
"I know (the sentence) 'Where is the bathroom?'." But that is hardly useful
in practical terms, and I don't like it all that much.)

Here's why I'm *completely* sure SAO can't take a question. The object must
be a noun. In fact, the object is "that", and it refers "to the previous
sentence as a whole." (TKD p. 65) Therefore, the first sentence must be able
to be condensed into a noun. Like "that fact". I hold that the first
sentence must state a fact to be useful as a noun.

Questions, on the other hand, are not facts. They are missing critical
information, and that's why we ask them. Especially in Klingon, we don't ask
questions we don't need answered. The only rhetorical questions we've found
are old sayings. Can we call a question a fact? I say no. They ask for
facts.

So, since the question cannot be seen in terms of a fact, <'e'> cannot refer
to it. Thus, the first sentence in SAO must not be a question.

That's my reasoning. Any intelligent argument is welcomed.

Qermaq

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