tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 18 20:18:44 1998
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Re: KLBC: question types
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: question types
- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 23:18:41 -0500 (EST)
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]> (message fromQov on Sat, 28 Feb 1998 14:02:33 -0800 (PST))
>Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 14:02:33 -0800 (PST)
>From: Qov <[email protected]>
>
>At 16:26 98-02-27 -0800, HovqIj wrote:
>}This is clear, but how about questions like:
>}"Did he hit the officer or the child?"
>}This is neither a yes/no-question nor does it have an interrogative. So,
>}do I need the {-'a'}?
>}{yaS puq ghap qIp}
>}I don't like the first one. It's not clear that it is a question.
>
>Exactly. It's a statement, not a question.
>
>}{yaS puq ghap qIp'a'}
>
>Have you ever asked a smart alecky computer programmer a question with an
>"or" in it? Ask my loDnal "Is your mother coming on Wednesday or Thursday?"
>and assuming that at least one of "mother coming on Wednesday" and "mother
>coming on Thursday" is a true statement, he'll answer "yes." I'm pretty
>sure that in Klingon the answer {HIja'} to {yaS puq ghap qIp'a'} would be
>the expected, not smart-alecky answer.
>
>}Maybe {yaS puq ghap qIp. 'Iv qIp?} - "He hit the officer or the child.
>}Whom did he hit?" would be better.
>
>majQa'. pup. I couldn't have recast it better myself.
That works. It's still, I think, a valid question as to how to do "X or
Y?" questions; I'm not positive this sort of recast needs to be (or should
be) the only way. An idiom I'm rather fond of--and have NO basis in canon
for--is "yaS qIp'a'? puq qIp'a'?" I think Japanese does this. "Did he hit
the child? Did he hit the officer?" It sounds right to me, as an idiom.
But of course, it's just my guess.
~mark