tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri May 21 07:58:10 2004

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Re: paghHu'/paghleS

Teresh000 ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

ghItlh lay'tel SIvten:
> > While both of these words basically do mean 'today', each adds its own
> > essential nuance. Since {Hu'} indicates a past time, and {leS} indicates a
> future
> > time, {paghHu'} means 'earlier today', and {paghleS} means 'later today'.
> 

ghItlh SuStel:
> This theory is not attested in any canonical Klingon we know.  It's
> possible, but there is no evidence to support it.  It's also possible that
> the nuance you're describing doesn't exist.
> 
> Just because a language has a potential construction doesn't mean that
> construction is correct.  In English, "I go to bed" and "I go to the bed"
> mean very different things, but you couldn't deduce why or what the
> difference was using only grammatical rules.  It's just the way it is.  The
> rule you have submitted here cannot be proven by grammatical means; it needs
> to appear in canon, or to be explained by Okrand.  None of us have native
> knowledge of Klingon idioms.
> 
> Not every possible construction is productive.  We have no way to determine
> what is productive in Klingon; we can only guess based on example.  No
> example does what you suggest.
> 

I agree completely with SuStel. To me, this is an example of the tendency
to treat Klingon as an intellectual exercise and not a real tool for
communication. Instead of fixating on the most obscure aspects of English
and trying to find ways to say them in Klingon, why not just write things
in Klingon, using the resources we all know and agree on?  Think of it
like haiku, or those 15-second movies people are making on their cellphones:
the challenge is to create something wonderful within strict limitations.
I truly believe that a lot of these "what-ifs" and questionable
derivations could be avoided if people simply tried to communicate in
Klingon, using the resources we've already got.

-- ter'eS

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