tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 31 21:54:40 1996
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KLBC: warrior
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC: warrior
- Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 23:58:01 -0500
beHwI"av writes:
>>The intentional misuse of possessive suffixes doesn't strike me as a
>>very effective way to insult someone. I just see it as a bad use of
>>the language; it takes attention away from the meaning of the words.
>
>In the post about the eyebrows, you noted that it was O.K. to use the suffix
>in that manner. Is it then solely because I used it as an insult that it is
>wrong?
My original analysis of the "eyebrow" post was thrown off by the unusual
use of the general plural suffix on a body part, and I completely missed
the fact that the incorrect possessive suffix had been used. I've never
said that it is okay to use a "speaking" possessive suffix on a "dumb"
noun, or vice versa. What I *did* say was that using the suffix {-mey}
to refer to body parts is occasionally done with poetic intent to evoke
a particular image of scatteredness, but it isn't strictly grammatical.
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj