tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 02 21:43:39 2003

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Huh? (was RE: Delbogh mu' pojtaH)

Teresh000 ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

ghItlh SuStel:

> Here's the big question: why SHOULD it be made into a pattern?  The
> "official" way of saying something?  The "accepted" way?  Why not just make
> sentences that express what you want to express?  Make sure it's 
appropriate
> to the situation.

Sometimes I don't have any idea what you're trying to say.  What's wrong with
finding patterns, or trying to find the "accepted" way of saying something?
Isn't another word for this "grammar"? 

I've noticed a subtle shift on the list over the past few years, and I think 
I see it
now.  In the _old_ days, we actively tried to find concensus, and, yes, rules
for the language.  Obviously, TKD didn't answer every grammatical question, 
or the answer to every question would be "See Section X.Y.Z".  We spent a lot
of time and energy (dare I say it) _standardizing_ the language.  But lately,
the answer to these sorts of issues has been a tendency to _avoid_
extrapolating patterns from canon.  I don't fully understand this, and I only
vaguely have a sense of it happening.  I'm probably not explaining myself
very well.  But SuStel's response to Paul seems to be an example of
this.  What in the world is wrong with trying to refine Klingon's grammatical
rules?  It has nothing to do with making Klingon more like English.  One
can easily stick to the inner logic of Klingon and make extrapolations.

Frankly, if the trend these days is to believe that very little about Klingon
can be codified, then we've created a situation that is extremely daunting
to newbies, that is contrary to the behavior of every known language (yeah, 
yeah, Klingon is an alien language...), and which, for me, yields a language 
that is more trouble than it's worth.  I enjoy Klingon, but if I have to 
learn sui generis how (for example) verbal objects change with every suffix and 
how it differs for every verb, then Klingon has ceased for me to be worth the 
effort.

-- ter'eS

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