[90033] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Negative polarity questions in Klingon
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Seruq)
Fri Oct 7 19:42:04 2011
From: "Seruq" <seruq@bellsouth.net>
To: <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 18:42:29 -0500
In-Reply-To: <CA+cwSm9OK2fjOPL8njG8qs0Trc6hkhybpKfdJt8Bdf_uuUuHXw@mail.gmail.com>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
(Even though we speak English) I constantly get my wife with this situation. She will answer with a
simple yes or no, and then I have to ask, yes - in agreement with that negative statement, or yes -
as in correcting the statement, saying the action does happen.
When I answer those type of questions from other people, I include more detail. Yes, that statement
is correct.
"Correct, the targ does not bite."
(Yes, I do talk like that.)
DloraH
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Philip Newton [mailto:philip.newton@gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 18:05
> To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org; tlhIngan-Hol@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
> Subject: [Tlhingan-hol] Negative polarity questions in Klingon
>
> 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 (= it bites)",
> while {ghobe'} would mean "No (= 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 bite"?
>
...
> Cheers,
> Philip
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>
>
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