tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 27 16:09:24 2009

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Re: Klingon translation

Mark J. Reed ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 6:42 PM, ghunchu'wI'<[email protected]> wrote:
>> If it were possible to use {'e'} to refer
>> to a question, it would have to be some kind of construction not aimed
>> at using the question word as a relative pronoun.
>
> Here is such a construction: Â"I know who stole the money."
> Another: "I wonder when the rock will fall."

The second one has an argument for legitimate question-as-object,
since it could be rendered as "I wonder, when will the rock fall?".
But the first one doesn't make sense that way: "I know, who stole the
money?"  That might work in some odd context (trying to come up with a
question to ask someone in a logic game, maybe), but it isn't the same
as your sentence.

> (Note that these really are the English interrogatives and not the
> often-identical-looking relative pronouns. ÂFor a clear example of
> the difference: Â"I don't remember what he is wearing." ÂThe word
> used here is "what", not "that".)

This is still the same problem, though.  What you don't remember is
not the question, but the answer to the question.   ("I don't remember
that which he is wearing" or "I don't remember the outfit that he's
wearing" could both mean the same thing as your sentence, and they
don't have interrogatives.  Of course, they could also be interpreted
as "Hey, that outfit he's wearing; I don't remember seeing it
before.")

-- 
Mark J. Reed <[email protected]>

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