tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 16 10:03:14 1995
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Re: "Do it or else..."?
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: "Do it or else..."?
- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 95 13:03:11 EDT
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>; from "Alan Anderson" at Jun 16, 95 8:20 am
According to Alan Anderson:
...
> Soqra'tIS: > <<bIlo'be'chug vaj bIHegh>> DaH vItu'pu'.
> > nuq bIQub.
...
> Using {vaj} after {-chugh} seems unnecessary. It's probably just personal
> preference, but I tend to translate {vaj} more as "thus" than as "then".
It's definitely personal preference. There is canon for using
{vaj} here, given {bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh} as "Buy or die" on
one of the audiotapes. While there is probably some canon
somewhere for omitting {vaj}, I cannot specifically recall any.
Given that, until someone DOES point out canon somewhere
indicating that it is okay to omit {vaj}, I think that instead
of "correcting" someone for having {vaj}, the pressure should
be on you to prove that your viewpoint is valid, even as an
option, let alone as general advice.
So, does someone recall such canon? I hope so. Then we can have
two clearly valid ways to say things like this and we can stop
giving each other a hard time for using one or the other. As it
is, the only definitely valid way I know to say this MUST
include {vaj}. I'd rather have both ways be valid, but without
canon, I can't justify it.
> "If X then Y" is okay in English, but {X-chugh Y} is just fine in Klingon.
Fine. Show me the canon that proves that. Don't just declare
it. Prove it. Just because it makes sense to you does not make
it a law of grammar.
Sorry to come down so heavy, but when handing out advice to new
speakers, you take on the authority of TKD and if you are
wrong, you put in a kink we later have to remove, often at the
cost of long, stupid, heated debate. Better to nip it in the
bud.
Even if it IS okay to omit {vaj} is it NOT okay to tell someone
they are wrong if they include it.
> -- ghunchu'wI'
The other stuff you said was right on target.
charghwI'
--
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