[90032] in tlhIngan-Hol
[Tlhingan-hol] Negative polarity questions in Klingon
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Philip Newton)
Fri Oct 7 19:05:29 2011
From: Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 01:04:35 +0200
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org, tlhIngan-Hol@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
When asking a positive polarity yes-no question, the responses are
pretty easy to understand.
For example, if someone's pet targ approaches you and you're a bit
scared, you might ask, {chop'a'} "Does it bite?"
Then an answere of {HIja'} would mean "Yes (=3D it bites)", while
{ghobe'} would mean "No (=3D it doesn't bite)".
However, I'm not sure what the situation is with negative polarity
yes-no questions.
For example, imagine that someone comes up to you with his pet targ
and says, {taghwIj yIyach} "Pet my targ!". You, being a bit
suspicious, ask, {chopbe''a'} "Doesn't it bite?"
Now what does, say, {HIja'} mean? "Yes, it doesn't bite" or "Yes, it does b=
ite"?
Different languages take different approaches - I can think of at
least three ways to respond to "Does A not do B?":
1) e.g. English: "no" means "you are correct: A does indeed not do B";
"yes" means "you guessed wrongly; A does do B". ("Doesn't it bite?" -
"No, it doesn't." or "Yes, it does.")
2) e.g. German or French: "no" means "you are correct: A does indeed
not do B"; a special word ('doch' in German, 'si' in French) means
"you guessed wrongly; A does do B"; the "yes" answer for
positive-polarity questions is not used for negative-polarity
questions (or if it is, it probably means "you are correct: A does
indeed not do B", the same as "no"). ("Bei=DFt er nicht?" - "Nein." or
"Doch.")
3) e.g. Japanese or Greenlandic: "no" means "you guessed wrongly: A
does do B"; "yes" means "you are correct: A does indeed not do B".
("Kamimasen ka?" - "Iie, chigaimasu." or "Hai, sou desu.")
3) and 1) are pretty much opposite, but neither is more logical than
the other - one (#3, Japanese-like) agrees with the exact wording of
the question (including the negative), while the other (#1,
English-like) essentially agrees with the wording of the question
ignoring the negative.
Which way does Klingon go?
If it's like English, then a response of {ghobe'} to my {chopbe''a'}
means I'm safe... if it's like Japanese, then that response means I'm
in danger!
Or do we not know (and we'd be better off avoiding negative-polarity
questions such as {chopbe''a'} as a result)?
Cheers,
Philip
-- =
Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>
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