tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 30 13:00:05 2003

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Re: "movie" (was Re: MOST terminology)

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

From: "Alan Anderson" <[email protected]>

> Is it perhaps that you're just missing the point?  This isn't a discussion
> about what Klingons call a movie.  It's a discussion about how *we*
> translate into Klingon what *we* call a movie.  It is a tangent to the
> larger discussion about how *we* can translate the menus and other text of
> a computer program that *we* created.
>
> I agree that we don't know how a hypothetical Klingon, in a typical
Klingon
> context, would say "Let's go see a movie."  But that's not important --
> what's important is how *we* can say it, because we're talking about a
> movie in a Terran context.

My point is not about how we translate things.  It is about the meaning of
/HaSta/.  You seem to think that a /HaSta/ can include movies.  I do not.  I
don't think it applies to ANY visual display, just the sort of visual
display that will show you what's going on in a certain area, for instance.

Is the Mona Lisa a /HaSta/?  It's displaying a scene, and a person,
visually.  Is a modern video game, complete with realistic graphics, shown
on your television screen, a /HaSta/?  Is your computer screen a /HaSta/?
Is a /jIH/ showing a /wIy/ a /HaSta/?  Is the window I'm typing this message
in a /HaSta/?  And if not, why would we name it such for a office software
suite?  Is a child's diorama made for an elementary school project a
/HaSta/?  How about a science project standee?  How about a museum exhibit?
These are all on display to be visually inspected.  Is a /wIy/ a /HaSta/?

I don't think so.  I think a view on the screen of what's in front of your
ship is a /HaSta/.  I think the image you transmit in your webcam software
is a /HaSta/.  I think a /HaSta/ is a projection through a device of an
image of something that's happening elsewhere.  Maybe it can be recorded,
but probably not edited into a fiction.  It probably needs to be a moving
image; a painting or a photograph doesn't count as a /HaSta/, though a photo
might be right if it's a current still image from something like a webcam.
A television screen hooked up to cameras monitoring a high-security hallway
is showing a /HaSta/.  A /HaSta/ shows you what the situation looks like,
and a /wIy/ abstracts it for you to let you better understand what it's all
about.

Is my opinion necessarily right?  No.  You seem to be pretty confident in
your understanding of /HaSta/, so I'm asking: please explain exactly what it
means, and how you know that.  Please tell me why you seem to think that
questioning the meaning of /HaSta/ is not worthwhile.

SuStel
Stardate 3996.6

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