tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 12 08:43:48 1999
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Re: Dab
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dab
- Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 11:43:46 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
- Priority: NORMAL
On Fri, 12 Feb 1999 06:11:08 -0800 (PST) Alan Anderson
<[email protected]> wrote:
> ja' muHwI':
> >Is it {nuq DaDab} or {nuqDaq DaDab} for "where do you live?"
>
> "Yes, that's a very interesting question."
> I can see Marc Okrand's customary enigmatic smile now...
>
> After thinking about it briefly, *I* get the impression that the first
> one one wants to know what kind of home you live in, and the second
> implies that the answer is expected to be a location name.
>
> nuq DaDab? / chIrghHey vIDab.
> nuqDaq DaDab? / voSpegh vIDab.
That's an interesting interpretation. Meanwhile, I'd expect any
question asked with {nuq} to be answered with a noun in its
place, while I'd expect any question asked with {nuqDaq} to be
answered with the same sentence with nounDaq in its place.
So, I'd expect {nuqDaq DaDab?} to be answered with {voSpeghDaq
vIDab}. I'd also as likely expect the question to be {nuqDaq
bIDab?} answered by {voSpeghDaq jIDab.}
I think it should be perfectly legitimate to have {nuq DaDab} to
be answered with the name of the place at which you dwell. If
you work from an English language starting point, the difference
between "where" and "what" might lead to your conclusions, but
this isn't English and I doubt your interpretation of the
combination of these question words and {Dab}.
Maybe you are right, but that's not how it looks to me on first
or second viewing.
> The other possible question is {nuqDaq bIDab}, which seems to have a
> very different focus from the others -- though I'm not sure what its
> focus really is. Perhaps it's a little more general?
>
> nuqDaq bIDab? / tera'Daq jIDab.
Yes, this is an odd one. I suspect you are right, that what is
being asked is for a location that includes the place you dwell,
though it contains a bigger scope than your dwelling. Otherwise,
it doesn't make much sense to me.
I mean, if I lived on a ship, one question would be answered
with the ship and the other would be answered with the ship's
current coordinates. When I say that I live on the ship, I'm not
just telling you the kind of dwelling. I'm telling you the place
I live, just as much as if I gave you the street address of the
house I live in (since the street address is used to identify
the house as much as to locate it). The only difference is that
the ship moves.
> That's just my completely unofficial opinion.
Ditto for me. We have to guess on this one, though I think just
plain {nuq} fits the explained grammar better than {nuqDaq}.
> -- ghunchu'wI'
charghwI' 'utlh