tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 28 12:27:32 2002
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Re: Lexicographical issue...
From: "C. Krottje" <[email protected]>
> What are the rules for the construction and writing of compound
> nouns, and what are the exceptions if there are any?
Others have spoken on this matter, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
THE KLINGON DICTIONARY, section 3.4 I believe, tells us that when Klingons
want to combine nouns to create a concept that isn't otherwise found in a
dictionary, they use the noun-noun construction.
tlhIngan Hol
Klingon language
baS HIvje'
metal cup
puq vav
boy's father
What this means is that "compound nouns," described slightly earlier in the
section on nouns, which are not the same as "noun-noun constructions," are
those utterances which have become lexicalized over time as nouns. Words
like
jolpa'
transport room
tIjwI'ghom
boarding party
'Iwghargh
bloodworm
pu'HIch
phaser pistol
are therefore words that one would find in a dictionary, not words that
someone would make up on the spot to describe a concept (as are noun-noun
constructions).
In other words, you can make up noun-noun phrases, and you can't make up
compound nouns.
SuStel
Stardate 2405.7