On 7/13/2016 10:10 AM, De'vID wrote:
Are you saying that any QAO *construction* is just ungrammatical? I was under the impression that what was considered incorrect was *misinterpreting* the question word in a QAO sentence as a relative pronoun.
We got our first question-as-object sentence from Okrand in TalkNow!: *nuq Datlhutlh DaneH*/What do you want to drink?/ This supports the idea that you can use**the pronoun-like (not relative pronoun) question words *nuq* and *'Iv* in the place of the answer, just as TKD describes, even if it's in the first sentence of a sentence-as-object construction.
Would anyone on this mailing list even blink if they heard a Klingon ask {'Iv vIHoH DaneH}? Or misinterpret it as "you want who I kill"?
I would blink, because I'd be thinking, "Oh, it's a question-as-object construction, but it's one of the okay ones."
I actually think {chay' veSDuj'a' vIghajlaH DaH 'e' boyajchoH} is a perfectly grammatical Klingon sentence, just one that doesn't mean what Krankor wrote it means.
If it's grammatical, I don't understand what it means.
In fact, I think Klingon can express certain questions more economically and precisely than English.
{chay' maSuv 'e' ra'} "how did he order us to fight? (i.e., he ordered us to fight; what manner of fighting did he order us to do?)"
This does *not* mean "he commanded how we fight" as a statement, and it can be contrasted with: {maSuv chay' 'e' ra'} "how did he order us to fight? (i.e., did he talk to us in person, did he send a coded communique by subspace, did he send us a message by courier, etc.?)"
Although they are not spelled out in TKD, based on the TalkNow! example I would probably also accept sentences like: *nuqDaq bItlhutlh DaneH */where do you want to drink?/ *ghorgh bItlhutlh DaneH */when do you want to drink?/ *HIq 'ar Datlhutlh DaneH */how many ales do you want to drink?/ *chay' Datlhutlh DaneH */how//do you//want to drink?/ But, as you say, I wouldn't accept sentences in which the question word is being used as a relative pronoun. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name