tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 17 17:38:22 1999
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Re: ma'veq: It's official
- From: "Adam Snyder" <asnyder@nycap.rr.com>
- Subject: Re: ma'veq: It's official
- Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 20:39:02 -0500
DaH mu'mey vIleQpu' jIH 'e' vItlhoj. QaghwIj.
>If you are saying that you were wrong to do this, then you are
>correct. If you are saying it is wrong to suggest that you are
>wrong, then, well, you are wrong. As pointed out, TKD page 66
>rather clearly says that one of the arbitrary rules of Klingon
>grammar is that you can't do this.
Yes, yes. Just a little nit-pick though: aspect prefixes are type 7.
>Okrand has broken this rule a couple times, himself, so I
>suspect this is like "who" and "whom" in English. There is a
>right way to do it, and then there is the way a lot of people do
>it, which is to ignore the rule. But the rule is there, and when
>you break it, you are not grammatical and it is useless to argue
>otherwise.
Here's a question: the example given in TKD works because both parts of the
SAO phrase are in the same tense. What if they aren't? Then the
implications aren't the same! If I had wanted to say, "I had thought that
prefixes confused me"; I could see how adding the suffix to both sides
could be redundant. But, If I had wanted to say, "I had thought that the
prefixes confuse me"; I would have to leave the suffix off of both parts,
making it the wrong tense enirely. So, while incorrect, I think that what I
said is much more clear.
>If I ask, "Who did you pick as your roommate?" I just broke a
>rule in English. It is grammatically incorrect. I should have
>said, "Whom did you pick as your roommate?" A lot of people make
>this mistake and some argue that because it is a common error,
>English is changing so that rule doesn't count any more.
If only Klingon were as liberal as English! ;)
>It's a weak argument, all the same. Yes, it is a common mistake,
>but yes, it still is a mistake.