tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jan 21 01:36:11 1997
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Re: The {nuq} of Earl
- From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: The {nuq} of Earl
- Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 11:33:28 -0800
- Organization: Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science
- References: <[email protected]>
Steven Boozer wrote:
> In short questions, nuq is used inconsistently by Okrand. Is this a
> colloquial vs. formal stylistic variation? To review the canon:
>
> nuq tu'lu' What is there? CK <----
This is as it should be, -- an existential construction.
> Dochvam nuq What is this? CK <----
> Daqvam nuq What is this place? CK <----
> nuq mI'lIj What is your number? CK <----
Interesting, isn't it? There's not a word in _tKD_ to justify these.
One would expect {nuq 'oH Dochvam'e'/Daqvam'e'/mI'lIj'e'}.
> Sojvetlh 'oH nuq'e' What is that food? PK <----
I find this construction very weird. It says in _tKD_ that {Y 'oH X'e'}
`X is Y' is to be understood as `As for X, it is Y', with a topicalised
subject. That being the case, PK {Sojvetlh 'oH nuq'e'} comes across as
`As for what, it is that food', which doesn't make sense. In principle
it should not be possible to topicalise an interrogative pronoun; the
very notions of topicalisation and interrogation are incompatible, as
the former means old information and the latter means absence of any.
Either the paraphrase in _tKD_ is wrong or the {... 'oH nuq'e'} idiom
follows some special rules. In either case, though, I don't see what
makes this construction preferable to {nuq 'oH Sojvetlh'e'}.
> Dujvetlh 'oH nuq? What ship is that? ST6 <----
Substandard dialect, maybe? Cf. PK {sojvetz oh nuk}.
> "Question words (in this case, nuq what?) function the same way pronouns
> do in questions with to be in the English translations. Thus, the question
> yIH nuq? What is a tribble? is exactly parallel the statement yIH 'oH
> It is a tribble... The answer to the question yIH nuq? (What is a
> tribble?) would presumably be a definition or description of a tribble.
> [...]" (MSN Okrand BBS)
That sounds more like an answer to {nuq yIH} or {nuq 'oH yIH'e'}, with
`a tribble' as subject and the question word as complement.
--'Iwvan
--
"mIw'e' lo'lu'ta'bogh batlh tlhIHvaD vIlIH [...]
poH vIghajchugh neH jIH, yab boghajchugh neH tlhIH"
(Lewis Carroll, "_Snark_ wamlu'")
Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected], [email protected]>
Dept for Math Lx, Inst for Maths & CompSci, Bulg Acad of Sciences
Home: cplx Iztok bl 91, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria