[Tlhingan-hol] Negative polarity questions in Klingon

[Seruq]

(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 at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 18:05
> To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org; tlhIngan-Hol at 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 at gmail.com>
> 
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