tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 02 13:23:39 1996
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Re: KLBC: compounding
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>Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 14:16:54 -0800
>From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
>
>November 28, 1996 3:34 PM, jatlh Andrew 'Ska' Netherton:
>
>> HIQoy,
>
>jI'IjlI'.
>
>> OK, I've now been wondering about compounding things; not just
>> nouns and nouns, but with verbs as well, to form multi-noun-multi-verb
>> words/phrases. Is there any restriction on this?
>
>We're not sure about the rules on compounding nouns. Generally, there should
>usually be a better way to say what your saying than by making up a new word.
>If you do so, you're hoping that someone else is going to understand it, and
>believe me, it's often a lot less obvious than you thought!
This is true: it's FAR too easy to come up with what I call "hindsight
words" when compounding (a hindsight word is a coining that makes perfect
and impeccable sense... once you know what it means already. They are easy
to make up and very tempting and dangerous. Avoid them).
>If it's a life-and-death situation, go ahead and compound two nouns. (Of
>course, Klingons LIKE life-and-death situations . . .)
I don't know if I'd word it THAT strongly. TKD *does* say that
noun-compounding is a productive process in Klingon. The trick is not
relying on it too much and not using it to make hindsight-words.
>This does not mean "menopause" to me at all! Come up with something more
>accurate, which details the situation! Unfortunately (I suppose), we don't
>have a word for this. Get used to it.
Yeah; nobody ever promised that Klingon as it stands now is complete.
>Why in the world do you want to talk about menopause, anyway? The sciences
>are NOT supported by TKD, and they're very difficult to pidgin through.
Now, now. Menopause is a very important thing to talk about, in some
circumstances. Maybe not to you, now, but for all we know it happens to
Klingons too.
~mark
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