tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 11 04:44:00 1995
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Re: }} Re: vItlho' tlhIH!
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: }} Re: vItlho' tlhIH!
- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 08:44:00 +0000
Robert Heinlein observed that an armed society is invariably a polite
society. For examples, try Japan during the Tokugawa period, the American
West in the late nineteenth century (cowboys were said to be masters of the
indirect, non-confrontational statement), or any Soldier of Fortune
convention today. I read an article about an SOF convention once where the
author was amazed at the high level of civility and scrupulous attention to
courtesy displayed. Although these are all Terran examples, there does seem
to be the makings of a universal hypothesis: if the cost of an insult is a
fight to the death, then one is likely to be very deliberate in how one
speaks to another.
The forms and standards of polite speech are another thing altogether, what
may be good manners on one planet or in one language could well be a grave
matter in other circumstances. Japanese has several levels of politeness
and also a number of levels of honorifics that have no functional English
equivilents. To a native Japanese speaker, English seems terribly impolite,
"please" and "thank you" notwithstanding. Further, when one trys to speak
Japanese and use Japanese honorifics in a non-Japanese setting, the result
is nonsense. Without a culturally defined relationship between the speaker
and the person addressed, the various honorifics and conjugations alone lose
meaning. Cultural context, which is to say all those things that two beings
take for granted in a conversation, is far more important in understanding
that conversation than verbatim word by word translation.
---Steve Blum
"Of course the game is rigged, but if you don't play you can't win." From
the notebooks of Lazurus Long.
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From: internet!aol.com!WestphalWz
To: internet!stargame.org!kli; SBLUM
Subject: Re: }} Re: vItlho' tlhIH!
Date: Friday, 11 August, 1995 01:14
In a message dated 95-08-10 09:38:28 EDT, you write:
> I had meant to say "thank you", "I thank (all of) you", etc., but I
> see that I have quite a long way to go... Besides, how many
> Klingons say thank you? {}}:(
>
Klingons are direct and do not even have words for niceties such as Hello;
and they definitely do not bother with asking how's the weather before
conducting business. But, without canon quotes to pass on to you, Klingons
do appear to be polite--on their terms, that is. They do say thank you. I
just wish I could give you evidence of why I think so.
peHruS