tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 22 08:23:44 1998
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Re: RE:
ja' Patrick Masterson:
>wa'. Can you use questions as sentences for use with 'e'?
>as in the following:
>qatlh nuch HoH yaS 'e' vISov. (I know why the officer killed the
>coward.)
jang pagh:
>Wow. Quite a choice for a first question...
>
>In any case, it is best just to avoid it until we know for certain.
ja' charghwI':
>This is a good answer in terms of telling him what not to do,
>but he could probably use more help in terms of how to say this
>while not doing what he is supposed to not do. I'll make a stab
>at it.
>
>It does involve a bit of complexity, but I'd cast it as:
>
>"I know why the officer killed the coward."
>
>yaSvaD nuch HoHmoHbogh meq vISov.
>
>[Literally: "I know the reason which caused the officer to kill
>the coward."]
>
>The reason questions don't work in a "Sentence As Object"
>construction is that the pronoun {'e'} is supposed to represent
>the entire preceeding sentence, but in your example, {'e'} is
>not representing the question. It is representing the ANSWER to
>the question.
>
>Think about it. You don't really mean to say, "I know that why
>did the officer kill the coward?" now, do you? What is it you
>know? You know the reason. The officer had a reason for killing
>the coward. You know what that reason is.
What we had here in the original attempt was a "sentence as object"
with a question as the object. We know that doesn't work, but with
one simple substitution it can be used as a pattern for something I
think does work well. Instead of the entire sentence as object, for
this idea we want a *reason* as object.
qatlh nuch HoH yaS? meq vISov.
"Why did the officer kill the coward? I know the reason."
or "I know why the officer killed the coward."
Similar appropriate objects can be used for other questions.
nuqDaq yuch Dapol? Daq vIqaw.
"Where do you keep the chocolate? I remember the location."
or "I remember where you keep the chocolate."
chay' HanDogh tI' chamwI'? mIw vIghojta'.
"How did the technician repair the nacelle? I have learned the procedure."
or "I have learned how the technician repared the nacelle."
(This one is mildly ambiguous -- did I merely find out what he did, or do
I now know how to repair it myself?)
ghorgh mamej? rep vIlIj.
"When do we leave? I forget the hour."
or "I forget what time we leave."
For sentences with "who" or "which", using the verb suffix {-bogh} is
usually more appropriate than making it into two sentences.
-- ghunchu'wI'