tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Feb 07 06:52:00 1995
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Re: Multiple subordinate or Relative Clauses
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Multiple subordinate or Relative Clauses
- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 95 9:51:57 EST
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Christopher M. Dicely" at Feb 6, 95 11:36 pm
According to Christopher M. Dicely:
>
> How do you construct a sequence of subordinate or relative clauses in
> tlhIngan Hol, or is there
> even a way to do this? Specifically, I was trying to translate the preamble
> to the US Constitution,
> and the US Declaration of Independence, and in both ran into what seemed to
> be a nasty situation...
There is no easy way to handle this, except to take Okrand at
his word when he explained that often a single sentence in
English would be translated into more than one sentence in
Klingon. He was specifically speaking on "sentence as object"
constructions, but I have long felt that this should be true
for such pompous and rambling works as you have described.
Don't get me wrong. I strongly approve of these documents. I'm
glad they happened. I just think the form of the language is
perverse in its efforts to overstuff every sentence as if the
complexity beyond necessity could somehow make the document
more meaningful.
It's the way committees write. Individuals don't write like
that. Klingons don't write in committees. Face it. If they
tried, then someone would suggest adding one phrase too many
and the original author of the sentence would pull out a
disruptor and edit the committee.
The Ghettisburg Address was a wonderful subject for translation
into Klingon... until the last sentence. Drop that one
overstuffed sentence anchored in references to supernatural
authority, and it is delightful to translate.
Were I to take on the Constitution, I'd probably translate most
sentences into three or more Klingon sentences. The meaning
would still be there, perhaps even clearer than in the
original. Try to match it sentence for sentence and you'll wind
up writing something nobody could understand.
> Chris
> Christopher M. Dicely
> [email protected]
charghwI'
--
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"> | Get a grip.
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