tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 14 13:59:06 1998

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Re: How do I say...




> :    najtaHvIS torgh, be' legh. 
> : 
>     "While Torg is dreaming, he sees a woman."
> 
> Absolutely.  But I notice you needed to add a comma after {torgh} to
> distinguish this from:
> 
>      najtaHvIS, torgh be' legh. 
>      While s/he is dreaming, s/he sees Torg's woman.
> 
bIlugh jay' :)
of course you have the same problem, kind of, with full stops:

naj torgh. be' legh.      vs      naj. torgh be' legh.

hmmm...

> Punctuation is a wonderfully simple invention, allowing great subtlety in
> the written language.  (In speech of course you'd use pauses of different
> lengths or intonation to distinguish the various meanings.)  We shouldn't
> hesitate to take advantage of it to add precision - dare I say "accuracy" -
> and power to our writing.
> 
I, of course, let myself be guided by German punctuation rules...

                                           Marc Ruehlaender
                                           aka HomDoq
                                           [email protected]



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