tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 05 19:37:04 2006

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Re: KLBC DIS chu'

Lawrence M. Schoen ([email protected])

• From: "Lawrence M. Schoen" <[email protected]>
• Subject: Re: KLBC DIS chu'
• Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:07:42 -0500
• User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.1.0.040913

ghItlh ter'eS

> Another alternative I like to use with paired adjectives
> isn't strictly canon but seems to have general acceptance:
> {valbogh loD qan}

I like this because it reminds me of the useful concept once
made by Dr. Herb Clark, a psycholinguist at Stanford University.
Clark pointed out the distinction between "given" and "new"
information in sentences like:

1) The old man is wise.

Versus

2) The wise man is old.

Clark's point was that generally in English the new information
a speaker wishes to convey can be found in the sentence's predicate,
whereas information which the speaker might reasonably assume is
already known by his audience is attached directly to the subject.

When I see a phrase like {valbogh loD qan} I can't help but see the
parallel. The new information is that the man is old. Which man? Oh,
that wise one over there.

{pItlh}

Lawrence

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