tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 19 11:13:27 1998
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Re: KLBC: question types
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: question types
- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:13:24 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Mark E. Shoulson" at Mar 18, 98 08:36:18 pm
yaS puq ghap qIpbogh yIngu'!
charghwI'
According to Mark E. Shoulson:
>
> >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
>