tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 03 20:47:55 1994
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Complex sentences and question words
>From: "Kevin Wilson (DV 1994)" <[email protected]>
>Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 01:23:44 -0400 (EST)
>On Thu, 3 Mar 1994, Will Martin wrote:
>> 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'
>I agree that verbs of saying do not need 'e', but I was trying to make a
>distinction between direct speech and reported speech. The TKD never says
>that verbs of saying cannot have the 'e' pronoun.
Wow, I really flubbed it (I'm not going to pull out another replacement
proverb, because it always takes forever to explain what it means to folks
who don't have PK). Not only did I miss the fact that verbs of saying
don't take "'e'" (it does say so, Kevin), but also the fact that Klingon
doesn't do reported speech. Let's look at the relevant section: TKD
6.2.5, page 67.
"Similarly, with verbs of saying (say, tell, ask, etc.), {'e'} and {net}
are not used. The two phrases simply follow one another, in either order.
qaja'pu' HIqaghQo'
or HIqaghQo' qaja'pu'
"This is literally _I told you, 'Don't interrupt me!'_ or _'Don't interrupt
me' I told you_... An aspect marker... may always be attached to the verb
of saying, regardless of whether it is the first or second verb."
So we are told explicitly that verbs of saying don't take "'e'", and a very
strong implication is made that Klingon quotes are always direct quotes. I
made that mistake once in my translation of These Boots Are Made for
Walkin'; it's not something that's easy to remember. But there it is;
Klingon doesn't do reported speech.
>Kevin A. Wilson
~mark