tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 13 06:06:55 1998
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Re: SuvwI'bom
ja' Qov:
>I see how I see it, now, too. The way I use it, the subject of to be,
>or PTB tends to be the information the questioner already had.
That seems backwards to me. {Dujvetlh 'oH nuq'e'? nIHwI' ghaH 'Iv'e'?}
You want to know the identity of the ship or the thief. That's what
you're asking about. That's exactly the information you do *not* have.
In a "who" or "what" question, I think it's obvious that the question
word itself should be the topic.
>You've asked about my name, so I give you {Qov 'oH [pongwIj'e']}.
If I've asked about your name, I consider your name to be the topic of
my question. I do *not* consider the word "your name" as that topic.
{ponglIj 'oH nuq'e'?}
>You've asked about "Qov," so I give you {pongwIj 'oH [Qov'e']}.
Again, I see it exactly backwards from you. I don't want to focus on
the word {Qov}, I want to focus instead on the answer to my question.
{Qov 'oH nuq'e'?}
I'm pretty sure I'm not being misled by the mandatory use of {-'e'} in
a "to be" sentence. I see it working this way just by the nature of a
Klingon pronoun-as-be.
-- ghunchu'wI'