tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Apr 13 19:00:09 2006
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Re: mangpu' or negh?
- From: "QeS 'utlh" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: mangpu' or negh?
- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:59:53 +1000
- Bcc:
ghItlhpu' Shane MiQogh, ja':
>I don't see how they're improper english, just cultur taboos...
They're not culturally taboo. They're just not good English. Like I
demonstrated, "dis-" usually has a certain sense to it that just doesn't
work with some verbs. Which verbs is, of course, a matter of opinion, but I
do think that no-one would ever use the word "disexist".
>one day i had the idea for a Supermarine instead of sub marine,
>theoretically it'd be a flying boat,
The thing is that there's no need for a word "supermarine". There's no craft
that could only fly above the water, but not above the land, too. Why not
just call it an aircraft? Oh wait... we already do. {{:) "Submarine" was
originally an adjective, and it still is. Its noun usage has only come about
by extension of that adjective usage. I would say that a normal boat would
be a "supermarine" - because, after all, it's *on* the ocean, not *in* it.
And since we have a word for "boat" already, the need for a word
"supermarine" is minimal.
>Usually takes people 5 minutes to figure out (since super is an
>almost completely unused prefix if used at all, anymore.)
I think the problem is not that "super-" is a rare prefix, but that your
sense of the word "supermarine" can only be worked out by reference to the
opposite word, which is "submarine". And anyway, as I've said already, I
would interpret "supermarine" as being just a normal boat, as it's over/on
the ocean rather than under it.
Anyway, getting back to the point, the idea is that it's dangerous to say
that any Klingon suffix can be used with any Klingon word, and even if
they're grammatical, that doesn't mean they're going to make sense, or even
be interpreted the way you want them to be. Noam Chomsky's grammatical, yet
nonsensical sentence "colourless green ideas sleep furiously" springs
quickly to mind.
QeS 'utlh
tlhIngan Hol yejHaD pabpo' / Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute
not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
- Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh
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