tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 14 07:01:33 1996
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KLBC: borg'ngan
- From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
- Subject: KLBC: borg'ngan
- Date: Fri, 14 Jun 96 08:37:10 EST
beHwI"av wrote:
>>>tlhIngan yIjatlh'a'
>>
>"[Do you] speak a Klingon!" An imperative prefix such as {yI-} and the
>>interrogative suffix {-'a'} don't make sense together.
>
>You mean it's a pleonasm.
ple.o.nasm \'ple--*-.naz-*m\ \.ple--*-'nas-tik\ \-ti-k(*-)le-\ n [LL
pleonasmus, fr. Gk pleonasmos, fr. pleonazein to be exces]sive, fr.
pleio-n, pleo-n more - more at PLUS : the use of more words than those
necessary to denote mere sense (as in the man he said) : REDUNDANCY; also :
an instance or example of such use of words - ple.o.nas.tic aj
Having just looked up the definition of "pleonasm", I can say firmly:
"No, it isn't." If I understand the word correctly, a pleonasm would
be something redundant like {juHDaq ghoS} "he is approaching to home"
(known to be acceptable grammar), or *{jej yaS tajDaj} "the officer's
his knife is sharp" (which I'm not sure should be accepted).
{yIjatlh'a'} is not redundant, it is contradictory. {yI-} indicates
a command, but {-'a'} indicates a yes/no question. I don't see any
way to reconcile their use together.
>>wIvwI' SoH
>
>"You are my choice." While this is grammatically correct, and actually
>has a surprisingly appropriate use of the suffix {-wI'}, it's extremely
>focused on nouns. I'd turn it around to be more verb-centric, and say
>{SoH vIwIvta'} "I have selected *you*."
I need to say two things here. First, I apologize for trivializing
beHwI"av's sentence; it is correct, in both grammar and meaning. My
preference for more "active" sentences shouldn't have any bearing on
how I judge others' writing. Second, I goofed on the verb prefix in
my suggested rewrite: it should be {SoH qawIvta'}. (I can imagine a
context in which the mismatched prefix might actually be appropriate,
but this isn't it.)
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