tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 01 08:33:12 1998

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Re: KLBC: question types

On Fri, 27 Feb 1998 16:32:07 -0800 (PST) Christiane Scharf 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> TKD says there are two types of questions:
> a)  yes/no-questions: the verb suffix {-'a'} is required, e. g.  {yaS
> qIp'a'}
> b) questions with a special interrogative: no {-'a'} required, e. g.
> {qatlh yaS qIp}
> 
> This is clear, but how about questions like:
> "Did he hit the officer or the child?"

I'm going to step in on this one despite the KLBC header because 
I think it is actually a rather advanced question deserving a 
broader debate. It is a MOST interesting one, as well. I'll just 
offer the way I'd ask it:

yaS puq ghap qIp. 'Iv qIp?

The statement sets the scope of the inquiry. If you use {-'a'}, 
you are asking if it is true that he hit the officer or the 
child and it is indeed a yes/no question. In this way, Klingon 
is less ambiguous than English, as I'll show:

"Did he hit the officer or the child? Because if he hit either 
one of them, I'm going to rip his lungs out!"

Until you read the second sentence, you might think I was asking 
which of the two he hit.

In Klingon the English question could be any of three very 
different meanings, each of which have very clear, unambiguous 
expression:

yaS puq joq qIp. 'Iv qIp.
yaS puq ghap qIp. 'Iv qIp.
yaS puq joq qIp'a'?

While {yaS puq ghap qIp'a'?} is grammatically possible, 
circumstances in which it would be meaningful would be rare. 
"Did he hit either the officer or the child, but not both?"

> This is neither a yes/no-question nor does it have an interrogative. So,
> do I need the {-'a'}?
> {yaS puq ghap qIp}/{yaS puq ghap qIp'a'}
> I don't like the first one. It's not clear that it is a question.
> Maybe {yaS puq ghap qIp. 'Iv qIp?} - "He hit the officer or the child.
> Whom did he hit?" would be better.
> How can I say it the best way?

You got it, assuming that one meaning is what you intended. 
Nicely done.
 
> HovqIj

charghwI'

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