tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Aug 20 23:43:03 1994
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Duj pIm
>I said, "instinct" in the sense that we're born with it. That's all I
meant,
>and I didn't mean to compare the language faculty (or whatever you want to
>call it) to a baby's rooting. My use of the term stemmed from someone's
>claim that language "instincts" are based on experience, a rather impossible
>situation no matter what linguistic theories you subscribe to.
>Sorry for my lack of clarity....
>--Holtej
>From all this discussion, I have one question that I believe may also occupy
the minds of several others here, altho some may not be as occupied by this
question as I am now.
What exactly causes us to disagree, if it isn't our differences in linguistic
experience?
Why does Proechel think in ways that the rest of us cannot even fathom.
Proechel is an Esperantist, and also speaks German, Russian, and knows much
of several other relate Baltic and European languages.
Usage of Klingon may also depend much on interpretation of TKD, in which case
a logical argument may sort things out, unless Okrand didn't explain clearly
enough, as with {-ghach}.
I can't think of a good example now of a case in which two or more parties
disagreed on a grammatical/semantic point because they simply "felt"
differently about the issue, and were unable to explain further on this smple
"feeling" they had, which could've come from nowhere else than their past
linguistic experience.
Proechel, I've often observed, wants Klingon to have the regularity of
Esperanto, and does such things as consider certain word parts as generic as
the small set of defined suffixes Okrand gave us.
E.g., because we have {vutpa'}, Proechel thinks we should also have {Soppa'},
{Qongpa'}, etc. He seeks symmetry, because he likes the idea so much in
Esperanto. I believe that is the main reason we disagree with him so much.
Also mayhaps because he knows very little of languages not of the IE and
Semitic language families. But Klingon was purposely made to be different
from these.
About two month ago I had a phone conversation with Proechel, which lasted
appr. 3 hours, well into the night. I wanted to clarify a few things, but he
seems quite set in his ways, (altho not unwilling to compromise. He did opt
to give up his {jIHvIp}-type constructions due to the opposition they were
receiving.)
Communication is a good thing.
Guido#1, Leader of All Guidos