tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 22 08:02:21 2010
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RE: monastery
- From: Terrence Donnelly <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: monastery
- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:00:16 -0800 (PST)
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--- On Wed, 12/22/10, Steven Boozer <[email protected]> wrote:
> Andre:
> > I'm not a native speaker of English, but isn't it
> possible to say,
> > like, "The whole monastery was shocked and frightened
> about the
> > new monk's deed." (or something). I understand the
> Klingon word as
> > referring to the building ("The monastery was found in
> 1673.") and
> > to the people in it, as my example sentence above.
>
> You're quite right, but there's not special about
> "monastery". You can do it with any building or place
> when referring to the people who live/work there:
>
> "The whole prison was shocked by the new guard's
> attitude."
> "The whole library was shocked by the new clerk's
> incompetence."
> "The whole hospital was shocked by the new doctor's
> carelessness."
> "The whole university was shocked by the new professor's
> opinions."
> "The whole city was shocked by the new gang's boldness.
> Etc.
>
This is called "synecdoche" in classical rhetoric, "where one part of an object is used to represent the whole". For example, "Washington is embroiled in chaos", where "Washington" stands for "the legislators in the legislature located in Washington". But this is not generally understood to extend the meaning of the "part" in the other direction. You couldn't see a group of legislators in the airport and say "There goes a washington".
The community that occupies a monastery is composed of monks. The community of monks occupies a monastery. The community of monks is not itself a monastery, in any accepted definition.
Frankly, I think Okrand doesn't always think his answers through as thoroughly as we analyze them. When his answers are ambiguous, I think it's best to take the simplest interpretation, which in this case is to restrict {ghIn} to the most basic meaning of "monastery": a building for the use of a religious community (allowing for the possibility that "religious" doesn't mean to the Klingons exactly what it means to us).
-- ter'eS
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