tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 14 17:32:53 1997
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Re: KLBC: tea for two
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: tea for two
- Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 20:32:51 -0500 (EST)
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]> (message from ThorntonRose on Tue, 14 Jan 1997 12:06:48 -0800)
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>Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 12:06:48 -0800
>From: Thornton Rose <[email protected]>
>
>In my first post, I asked how I would say "What kind of tea do you
>want?" (a question that I commonly ask my wife in the evenings). SuStel,
>like a good instructor, said that I should try it first. So, I took a
>step back and decided to start with a common but simple dialog that
>occurs between my wife and me regularly:
SuStel was a bit unfairly cryptic with you, I fear. The question of "which
X" or "what kind of X" has been bounced around on this list a LOT, with a
variety of answers. One of them was given by charghwI', Will Martin, who
maintained that Klingon would not use question words for this at all, but
ask more directly, in command form. And indeed, Marc Okrand recently
answered the question (not knowing Will's stand) in a way that agreed
perfectly with Will's method of choice (to his delight).
>Q: Dargh DaneH'a'? | Do you want some tea?
>A: HIja'. | Yes.
>Q: nuq DawIv? | What kind? (lit. "What do you choose?")
This works. But it really does mean "what do you choose", not "what kind."
>Now, sometimes I just start with the question "What kind of tea do you
>want?", because I know the answer is going to be "yes". In tlhIngan Hol
>I want to say:
> nuq Dargh DaneH?
>
>I have read on the list, though, that I can't use {nuq} followed by a
>noun. I don't understand why that is the case. TKD defines {nuq} as
>
> nuq what? (ques)
>
>and in "6.4. Questions" says
>
> For 'Iv "who?" and nuq "what?" the question word fits into the
> sentence in the position that would be occupied by the answer.
Indeed. Which would imply that "nuq Dargh DaneH" is asking "What's tea do
you want?" or "You want the tea of what?" Not quite what you mean either.
>Unfortunately, all of the examples use {nuq} as if it were a pronoun.
Well, it is. It's a questioning pronoun. It replaces the noun being asked
for in the sentence.
>So, here is my second try at "What kind of tea do you want?", even
>though it seems awkward:
>
> Dargh DatlhutlhmeH nuq DawIv?
Still awkward, yes.
What SuStel was trying to get you to was the method Okrand used (which
charghwI' had anticipated). It's not a question, it's a command:
Dargh DaneHbogh yIwIv!
or
Dargh DaneHbogh yIDel!
(or yIngu'). See? Rather than *asking* and fretting over how to say
"which?", you demand the information: Choose the tea you want! Describe
it! Identify it!
~mark
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