[Tlhingan-hol] Negative polarity questions in Klingon

[Philip Newton]

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"?

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"). ("Beißt 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 at gmail.com>