tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 16 06:06:50 1997
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Re: KLBC: Tea for two
- From: Mark Mandel <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: Tea for two
- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 09:03:24 -0500
ghItlh HurghwI':
>>>>>
> Here's a strange new idea for you:
> chay' Dargh DaneH?
> "How do you like your tea?"
> I realize I, too, may be basing this too much on the English, but it
> translates correctly.
<<<<<
jang SuStel:
>>>>>
I don't like it, although I can't exactly say why. I'd rather say,
{DarghlIjDaq nuq DaneH?} "What do you want in your tea?"
<<<<<
vIpar jIH je, 'ej meqwIj vIQIjchu'laH.
This use of "how" in English is really a question-adjective, like
Esperanto "kia": it means "like what?" The answer to the normal
uses of "how" (as in "how do I fix this faucet?" or "how fast is she
running?") describes an action ("First turn off the water
supply...", "xxx meters per second"); but the answer to "how do
you want your tea?" describes a thing ("with lemon and very hot",
"weak, with a drop of milk").
<chay'> is not a question-adjective, it is a question-adverbial,
like the normal kinds of "how". As far as we have seen, Klingon
adverbials modify the verb of the sentence. (They could also be
interpreted as modifying the whole sentence.) <chay' Dargh DaneH?>
is strange because <chay'> modifies <DaneH>, asking you HOW you
want: do you want well, do you want badly, do you want by using a
wrench, do you want intensely*.
Compare the exchange in _A Hard Day's Night_:
Q. How do you feel?
A. I used to use my hands.
That answer is funny just because it depends on interpreting "how"
in the normal way, where the question is idiomatic and doesn't
allow that interpretation. Let's answer HurghwI''s question the
same way:
Q. How do you want your tea?
A. With my sense of taste, not my throat. I'm not thirsty,
I'm craving the taste of tea.
or
A. With my brain. Why, are we having a neurology quiz?
* Actually, that last one's almost reasonable: <vIneHqu'!>
marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom -- Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'!
Subcmdr. Markemm, Klingon Sanitation Corps -- Death to Litterbugs!
** Mark A. Mandel : [email protected] **
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/