tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Aug 18 05:22:06 2002

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RE: Aw: Re: adverbials



lab DloraH:

>  > the tkd terminology says "you can't say this, because you can't." or
>>  "you can't say this because 7 is greater than 6." that's no
>>  explanation. i would like to have an explanation that explains
>>  instead of saying "correct" and "incorrect". i want to understand the
>>  grammar, not just immitate it.
>
>Can you explain to me why [i] comes before [e] except after [c]... except in
>weird words like... "weird"?
>
>Why is [ph] pronounced [f]?
>
>Well, for that matter, why is english Subject-Verb-Object?
>
>Can you ever really explain why a language is the way it is?

you already asked me the "weird"-question. but "it's not an issue of 
klingon", as we write the way we speak in klingon.
and for the english language: it has has the weirdest pronouncation 
that i've ever seen. :)

<ph> is a transcription for the greek f.

and i don't want to know why klingon is object-verb-subject, so i 
don't want to know why english is subject-verb-object.

why i don't want to know it? i'm interested only in the "living" part 
of the grammar. the s-v-o structure in english is fixed in english, 
it's not changeable for one speaker (but for generations of 
speakers). so even if we can describe the developement in history of 
languages that certainly follow some rules, they are out of 
grammatical context. i'm interested only in the grammar that a single 
speaker can be conscious of. and a single speaker cannot remember why 
some generations ago the writing of "weird" was fixed, as he cannot 
remember why many generations ago the s-v-o structure was fixed.

this consideration would have to force me to introduce a new word to 
describe the rules that a language undergoes during generations, in 
order to distinguish it from the grammar that a single speaker can 
apply in order to form sentences (i repeat: a single speaker doesn't 
change the writing of "weird", because such things occur over 
centuries, don't they?).

tulwI',
sts.


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