[tlhIngan Hol] imperatives as sao; does it make sense ?

[SuStel]

On 9/21/2020 8:48 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> "I want you to feed the owl", jIjatlh vIneH, vaj mu'tlhegh veb vIqon:
>
> {lIr yIje' vIneH}
>
> lugh'a' ?

No. The correct sentence would be *lIr Daje' vIneH.* Imperatives do not 
work as the first sentence of a sentence-as-object construction.


> sao mojtaHvIS ra'meH mu'tlhegh, taQchoHlaw' vay', 'a vay'vam
> vIngu'laHbe'.

You're thinking of it as a command, but it's not a command. It's a 
statement of fact about what you want. As we learn in /Klingon for the 
Galactic Traveler,/ a Klingon will "never [use] an indirect expression 
when a blunt one will do." If your purpose is to get me to feed the 
bird, use an imperative. What you /want/ is irrelevant.


> DaH, jISov.. chaq jatlhqang vay': qatlh {lIr yIje'} neH Daqonbe''a' ?
> 'a latlh mu'tlheghmey vIqonlaHbogh 'oHbe' QIn tlheghvam meq'e'. sao
> ra'meH mu'tlheghmey je 'oH QIn tlheghvam meq'e'.

That's unfortunate, because the correct answer is, in fact, to say *lIr 
yIje'.*

But the answer to your larger question is that you can't use imperatives 
as the first sentence of a sentence-as-object construction.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol-kli.org/attachments/20200921/242e69ce/attachment.htm>