tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 26 07:51:27 1995
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Comparatives (was KLBC)
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Comparatives (was KLBC)
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 95 10:51:22 EDT
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Ivan Derzhanski" at Apr 26, 95 7:53 am
According to Ivan Derzhanski:
...
> Doesn't Okrand feel that it's a disgrace to let people use monstrosities
> such as {machHa'ghach} just because he can't find the 60 seconds or so
> that it would take to tell them whether `bigness' is {tIn} or {tInghach}?
> I understand that he can't devote too much time to Klingon matters, but
> this is not something that needs any time.
Okay, time for me to repeat my antinominalizing rant.
People miss the point about {-ghach}. In English, we nominalize
everything. I don't answer you. Instead, I give you an answer.
The news won't say, "A person killed someone on Main Street
today." Instead, it comes out, "A killing occured on Main
Street today." You don't say, "The Sun is shining today."
Instead, you say, "Today, it is bright outside."
See how we kill the action implied in English sentences? So,
when we translate from English into Klingon, the first thing we
do is seek a way to do the same thing in Klingon. Since we
prefer nouns to verbs, we change a clear {qajang} into an ugly
{jangtaHghachwIj qanob.}
Okrand did not create {-ghach} so that every verb could be
nominalized whenever we want to. He created it to solve a
single problem he had coming up with a way to express
"discommendation". He needed to nominalize a verb which
required a suffix as part of its essential meaning. He could
not pull off his usual trick of just using the verb as a noun.
Meanwhile, in TKD, he clearly seeks to limit the use of verbs
as nouns. Many verbs are used as nouns as well, but he does not
give us license to do that to any verb whenever we like.
Instead, the idea is that whenever you can, you sustain the
focus on action instead of nominalization. When you can't, then
you resort to nominalizing. {-ghach} is a tool toward that end,
but it is a tool which should be preserved for special times
when it is really needed.
> --'Iwvan
charghwI'
--
\___
o_/ \
<\__,\
"> | Get a grip.
` |