tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Oct 24 13:01:57 1998
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Re: names and "to be" again (was Re: KLBC)
ghel ghunchu'wI':
Sorry, but I'm a few days back with reading the list.
> ja' qoror:
> >I have never studied French, but in extremely colloquial German, the
> >definite article is used with names of people. Zum Beispiel, "Der Manfred
> >soll reinkommen." (This might sound artificial to native speakers; I have
> >never spoken for an extended period of time with a real German.)
>
> Just so I'm clear on this, is this ever used to talk about the name, or
> is it always used when referring to the person?
Good question. It's true that in colloquial speech Germans say things like "Der
Manfed soll reinkommen." (Manfred is to come in <now>.)or even "Das ist der
Manfred." (That is Manfred.) or "Ich bin die Christiane." (I am Christiane.).
But we neither say "*Die Christiane ist mein Name." (*The C. is my Name.) nor
"*Mein Name ist die Christiane." (*My name is the C.).
In short, the definite article is only used when referring to the person, never
when referring to the name.
>
>
> Even in English, we find things like "The Enterprise" used in reference
> to a ship, but the actual name of the ship is just "Enterprise". It's a
> matter of the "use/mention" duality of names, which is universal enough
> that I assume it's also a feature of Klingon.
>
> -- ghunchu'wI'
HovqIj