tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 16 08:46:31 1997

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RE: KLBC: naDev bIrbejqu'!



ghItlh SuStel:

>>>>>

> > Hat bIr ja' muDtej.
> > The weatherman reported a cold temperature.
> 
> Not a low one?

True.

<DaHjaj bIr muD> ja' muDtej.

<<<<<

Why do we call a cold temperature "low"? Possibly because of the 
image of a liquid thermometer (whether mercury or alcohol), but 
more likely because of the way we map temperature to numbers and 
numbers to height. 

You may mutter, "I was with you till you mentioned height". The 
basic meaning of "high" and "low" is distance from the ground. We 
use the metaphor of distance from the ground ("height") to refer 
to numbers, and, by transference, to non-spatial things that we 
map to numbers, and even some spatial things that aren't vertical: 
        I got my lowest grade all term on this test!
        The temperature is rising.
        The rate of inflation is leveling off.
        Turn around. This address is higher than the one we want.

Grades, temperature, inflation, and street addresses have no 
(relevant) altitude, but we talk about them with the height 
metaphor that is standard for numbers in English. But is this 
metaphor used in Klingon? I don't think we have any evidence for 
it. (For that matter, how widespread is it in Terran languages?) 
So I prefer SuStel's alternative, 
        <DaHjaj bIr muD> ja' muDtej

(If you're interested in how metaphor is at the heart of even 
the most commonplace uses of language, read George Lakoff & Mark 
Johnson's books _Metaphors We Live By_ and _Women, Fire, and 
Dangerous Things_.)

     marqem, tlhIngan veQbeq la'Hom -- Heghbej ghIHmoHwI'pu'! 
Subcmdr. Markemm, Klingon Sanitation Corps -- Death to Litterbugs!
**              Mark A. Mandel : [email protected]             **
    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
          Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/





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