tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 03 09:18:58 1994

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Re: Complex sentences and question words



On Mar 3, 11:16am, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
> Subject: Complex sentences and question words
> 
> >From: "Matthew Whiteacre" <[email protected]>
> >Date: Wed, 2 Mar 94 17:05:08 CST
> 
> >On Wed, 2 Mar 1994 17:19:16 -0400 (EST, Kevin Wilson wrote:
> 
> >>
> >>SuvwI'pu' quv,
> >>
> >>      In translating Genesis I came across the sentence "Why did you
> >>tell me that she is your sister?"...

> >According to how I read section 6.2.5, it never states that the pronoun 
> >{'e'} or {net} must be the first word of the sentence.  Thus if you used 
> >english puncuation, I would write:
> 
> >be'nI'lI' ghaH.   qatlh 'e' qaja'ta'
> 
> >Which is a version of your number 2 option.
> 
> This selfsame question was treated by our own Captain Krankor in HolQeD
> 1:2, wherein he came up with the same conclusion as you did.  While I'm not
> sure I'd punctuate it quite like that, but punctuation is just a helping
> hand; it doesn't determine grammar.  Anyway, "'e'" is unmistakably a
> pronoun (that's what Okrand calls it), and is part of the second sentence
> (the object), and question words like qatlh, like adverbials, come before
> the objects of their sentences.  So option (2) is plainly correct.
> 
> ~mark

     Okay, I held off to let the grammarians (who were addressed directly on
this one) to go to it first, in a rare act of self control. Okay, I'll admit
it. I wrote a reply and changed the address to my own instead of to the list.

     So please explain to me why {ja'} gets {'e'} here when TKD says that
verbs of saying don't need it? Option 2 and 3 are exactly the same if you
take {'e'} out of it, which is what *I* humbly think ought to happen.

charghwI'



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