[tlhIngan Hol] What would you do ?

[SuStel]

On 5/30/2019 1:34 PM, Will Martin wrote:
> Note that it’s not two sentences. It’s four. In English, we translate 
> it as two, but in Klingon, it is four. One does not usually end a 
> sentence with a semicolon.

It's four sentences. It's also two sentences. A sentence-as-object is 
both one and two sentences. It is what TKD calls a complex sentence, as 
opposed to a basic sentence.

*jIpuj 'e' vItem.* There are two sentences here: *jIpuj* and *'e' 
vItem.* But a sentence is a structure that stands alone and contains a 
complete idea. The first sentence, *jIpuj,* is not an idea I'm trying to 
convey. It's the setup to the real idea, the context I need to make it work.

This is all exactly the same in English. /I deny that I am weak./ It 
consists of two sentences: /I deny that/ and /I am weak./ We recognize 
that each is a standalone sentence grammatically, but we also recognize 
that /I deny that I am weak/ is also a sentence. Just as in Klingon, we 
don't bother to punctuate the two component sentences.

The only difference between the Klingon and the English, besides the 
reversed syntax order, is that Klingon grammarians call *'e'* a pronoun 
and English grammarians, describing this particular function, call 
/that/ a conjunction.

One does not usually end a sentence with a semicolon, but one does 
separate two sentences with a semicolon when one is setting up a 
relationship between them. The first "sentence" will "end" with a 
semicolon. /I ate too much; I can't stand up./ Two related sentences, 
put together into a single sentence with a semicolon to form a single 
idea out of two. The first of the related sentences ends in a semicolon.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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