tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 14 19:39:49 1997
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RE: Saj, 'ay' wa'DIch
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: Saj, 'ay' wa'DIch
- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 97 04:31:56 UT
[email protected] on behalf of Deborah Kay wrote:
>
> According to Will Martin:
>
> The situation was difficult. They didn't think THAT.
> They didn't think that the situation was difficult.
>
> The situation was difficult. They didn't consider THAT.
> They didn't consider that the situation was difficult.
>
> Now, I'm tending to favor your suggestion, SuStel. I'd even
> consider {Har} a better choice than {qel}. Using {qel} does
> sound like they failed to factor in difficulty of the
> situation, rather than that they believed that the situation
> was normal or even easy.
> Your interpretation of <qel> describes how the family felt. In fact, their
> lives were difficult, but since that was all they were used to, they did not
> think it to be the case. I think this means that I missed the mark when I
> tried to describe the family's situation. So if the preceeding sentences in
> the story made this clear, would you accept the use of <qel>?
This isn't a grammatical problem. What's happening here is that {qel} means
"consider, take into account," not "judge to be." {qel} just doesn't work
here. {Qub} does.
Think of it this way: the {qel} sentence indicates that the family *failed* to
consider that their situation was difficult.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97533.7