tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 23 10:46:32 1997
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Re: magh betrays ambiguity
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: magh betrays ambiguity
- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 13:46:18 -0400 (EDT)
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> from "Guido" at Jul 22, 97 01:46:28 pm
According to Guido:
>
> Qob la'vo':
> >Possibly. I see the "reveal" aspect of {magh} as "revealing something
> >that one wouldn't normally want revealed". The sadness which her eyes
> >"betrayed" or "revealed" is not something she *wanted* others to see;
> >someone or something (in this case, perhaps her subconscious mind)
> >caused that hidden thing to be visible. YMMV.
>
> That must be the most logical reason for it, I suppose. But logically,
> wouldn't betraying sadness produce the look of happiness? This is why I
> think this kind of idiom bleeding into Klingon is unlikely. Just a point.
No. The look of sadness is not betraying sadness. It is
betraying the woman who would choose to withhold the appearance
of sadness. The whole point of using this verb in this setting
is to indicate that the degree of emotion extends beyond the
choice of the bearer. There is enough sadness within her to
spill out beyond the barriers she carries against revealing it
to the outside world. She may hold back her sad words, but she
cannot hold back the subtle language spoken by the muscles
around her eyes. Her eyes literally betray her, telling the
secret that she would choose to keep.
> =============================================
> Guido#1, leader of all Guidos
> Temporarily lacking a home page
> "Black holes are where God divided by zero."
> =============================================
And perhaps Guidos are where God divided by the square root of
negative one...
charghwI'