tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Apr 29 18:13:53 1995
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Re: bIjatlh 'e' yImev
- From: Round Table Account <klirt>
- Subject: Re: bIjatlh 'e' yImev
- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 21:13:51 -0400 (EDT)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "[email protected]" at Apr 27, 95 07:47:52 pm
> Finally, Klingon is a language more than a devised toy. Hayakawa's
> definition of language is "...spoken by one or more persons with
> understanding of the concepts attempting to be conveyed by one or more other
> persons." Erin Asai states that language translation must not be forced, but
> must be idiomatic, i.e. one must translate by "feeling" the language. I am
> rather confident of my feelings regarding adjective-noun parausage. I still
> contend that <mach puq> means "The child is little" and <lang puq mach> means
> "The little child is slender" through the "feeling" that <puq mach> is not
> only a noun modified by stative verb-adjective following it, but is a
> noun-noun construct meaning "the little[ness] of the child." Still, one
> definitely must NOT translate <lang puq mach> as "The littleness of the child
> is slender."
I believe the crux of at least *some* of the disagreement can be found in
the passage above. As both many of the advanced students of Klingon and
those of us with experience in a range of languages can indeed attest,
spending time with any language can result in a "feel" for it. I don't
don't Daniel's statement that he has a such a "feel" and I believe that
Will and many others would agree that they too have such an "feel" for
Klingon.
Where things break down is when the intuitions or "feel" that one of us
has developed jars painfully with the intuitions or "feel" of others.
Part of the reason for the KLI's existence was to provide a forum for
discussion, because when we are all working alone, without input from
others it is all to easy to diverge in our perceptions and use of the
language.
I applaud Daniel's willingness to share his ideas on this list, just as I
appreciate Will taking the time to respond in such detail. Though they
obviously disagree on a number of points, the fact that they take one
another so seriously strikes me as the grounds for mutual respect and the
foundation for further discussion.
It's this sort of thing that makes me look forward to the qep'a'. There
will be some lively discussion around the pool.
Lawrence
--
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:: Dr Lawrence M Schoen, Director :: The KLI is a nonprofit ::
:: The Klingon Language Institute :: tax exempt corporation ::
:: POB 634, Flourtown, PA 19031 USA :: DaH HuchlIj'e' ghonob ::
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