tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 25 19:06:57 1997
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Re: No indefinite articles
- From: "Robyn Stewart" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: No indefinite articles
- Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:06:03 PST
- Organization: NLK Consultants, Inc.
- Priority: normal
Darkshadow writes:
> okay how would you distinguish between these two sentences without
> a and the
Languages *can* get along just fine without articles. Hundreds of
millions of people speaking Russian, Polish and other Slavic
languages aren't suffering for the lack of "a" and "the."
Don't get hung up on words. Translate the idea. I have to examine
these sentences myself to figure out what different ideas they
convey. "Object" can mean several different things: a goal -
{ngoQ}, a part of a sentence (no known Klingon term), a thing {Doch}.
If you are using the articles to distinguish between two meanings of
"object" then the answer is simply that Klingons would use two
different words. If the word "object" has the same meaning in both
sentences then ...
> What is an object
This sentence is asking for a definition.
{Doch yImugh} - "translate {Doch}"
{<Doch> bIjatlhDI' nuq DaHech?} - "What do you mean when you say
{Doch}?
{mu' <Doch> yIQIj} - "Explain the word <Doch>."
> what is the object.
This sentence is asking for the identity of a particular object.
{Doch yIngu'} - "Identify the object"
A direct translation of both sentences would be:
{nuq 'oH Doch'e'?} "What is the/a object?"
If we were talking about vocabulary words, then I'd interpret it as a
request for a definition. Otherwise I'd assume you were asking me to
identify some object.
Does that answer your question?
- Qov