tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 10 13:03:01 1999

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

No Subject



It may be a matter of style, but then again, it may be a matter of
grammar.

In English, we're allowed to elide words to come up with "Are you hungry
or thirsty?"  In different contexts, this might mean "Are you hungry or
are you thirsty (which one?)" or "Are you hungry?  Are you thirsty?
(Either?)"

It might work the same way in Klingon, or it might not.  I mean, what
exactly DOES a conjoining of two questions mean?  How do you conjoin
questions?

None of the examples Voragh provided actually do give a choice of answers.
They're all made up of separate questions, related in context, but not in
grammar.

You can certainly ask several questions.  {bIghung'a'?  bI'oj'a'?}  You'll
receive several answers.  {ghobe', jIghungbe'.  HIja', jI'oj.}  But just
as you see no reason to believe that {bIghung'a' qoj bI'oj'a'} isn't
asking for a choice of states, I see no reason that it isn't asking two
separate questions.  "Yes/no and/or yes/no."

I agree that languages do not necessarily follow logical constructions,
but they don't necessarily follow English, either.

SuStel
Stardate 99356.2


jatlh pagh:
I'm not aware of any canon use of sentence conjunctions in questions,
but
: there is no reason to believe we can't use them that way. For your
example,
: you'd probably say <bIghung'a' qoj bI'oj'a'?>


jatlh Voragh:
pay' HIvDI' lo'wI' pagh mupDI' QIHchu' bIH

HeghDI' tlhIngan SuvwI' pagh tlhIngan SuvwI' HoHlu'DI'...

DaSovbej'a'? bISuDrup'a'? 

cheqotlhchugh maHaghbe''a'? cheDuQchugh mareghbe''a'? cheQIHchugh
manoDbe''a'?

It's a matter of style, not grammar.



Back to archive top level