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