[tlhIngan Hol] The book of our good captain

[DloraH]

On Thu, 2016-07-14 at 11:31 +0200, De'vID wrote:
> On 13 July 2016 at 18:23, Lieven <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:
> > I still think they are illegal. Nothing from that email makes it clear that
> > QAO are legal, especially when using question words a relative pronouns.
> >
> > Please read the email correctly:
> >
> > DloraH wrote 1998:
> > - You can not use a "question" as an object; [...]
> > - So basicly we didn't really get anywhere with this one yet. The safest
> > thing for now would be to recast if possible.
> 
> Here's the relevant portion of DloraH's report in its entirety:
> "Hopefully I won't misquote Marc.  Lawrence was with us during some of
> our conversations.
> The first one I nailed him with was our lovely QAO. Uh-oh. You can not
> use a "question" as an object; but... it is not known yet if Klingon
> question words can act as one of those relative things, uh, relative
> pronoun is it? You guys know what I'm refering to. So basicly we
> didn't
> really get anywhere with this one yet. The safest thing for now would
> be to recast if possible."
> 
> Note the quotes around the word "question". If Okrand had really been
> asked straightforwardly whether a question (any sort of question) can
> be the object of a sentence, I'd have expected the report to say "You
> can not use a question as an object" without the quotes. To me, it
> reads like the questioner was confused about terminology and was using
> the word "question" (in quotes) to mean "sentences where question
> words are misused as relative pronouns".

No, those quotes were not from confusion about the word "question".
In plain-text, there is only so much that one can do to express things.
We can't bold, can't italicize, you can't see my face or hands.  I used
quotes to emphasis that I was talking about an actual question.
Back then, there was much arguing on this list about QAO.  At that
convention I even started my question with "Much blood has been
spilled..."  I believe I even heard someone mutter "Uh-oh", and the look
on some of the faces, I think they knew what was coming.
MO said we cannot ask a question in a QAO.  I think someone put out an
example, and MO said he couldn't figure out what it would actually mean.
And for the relative pronoun, at the time, MO wasn't sure if Klingon had
that, or if it did, would they be the same words, the way English uses
the same words for both.


> The suggestion to recast, as I read it, applies only to sentences
> where an attempt is being made to use question words as relative
> pronouns.

The "recast" meant if you find yourself here, recast.  For both
questions and pronouns.
We know about using [ngu'].  "Which weapon do you want?" [nuH DaneHbogh
yIngu']  The English is a question, but the Klingon is a command.


- DloraH