[101973] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] tlhlIngan veS qeS
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (De'vID)
Fri Nov 6 08:55:06 2015
In-Reply-To: <CAP7F2c+RjE68Jw1Pdsmvd9ib=1SyKvkcLGPkCisv5sJsXRXFGQ@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2015 14:54:52 +0100
From: "De'vID" <de.vid.jonpin@gmail.com>
To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@kli.org
De'vID:
>> But in Klingon, {-chugh} is truly a condition.
qunnoQ:
> what is a condition ? (in grammar)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_sentence
Klingon {-chugh} expresses "if" only in the sense of introducing a
condition. It does not overlap with the ability of the English "if" to
also present alternatives (i.e., the sense of "if" in which it can be
replaced by "whether").
If you can replace "if" with "whether" and end up with a sensible
sentence, then {-chugh} is probably not what you want.
"Tell me if the book is written in Klingon." -> "Tell me whether the
book is written in Klingon." (This makes sense, and "if" here is
acting like "whether", so don't use {-chugh}.)
"I will buy the book if it is written in Klingon." -> "I will buy the
book whether it is written in Klingon." (This doesn't make sense. At
least you'd have to add "or not", but then it becomes a sentence with
a different meaning. So {-chugh} can be used for this sense of "if",
because it is acting like a conditional here.)
--
De'vID
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