tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Dec 01 19:07:19 2007

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Basic grammar question

David Trimboli ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Doq wrote:

> maleng qorDu'wIj.
> 
> Does it work? It does seem very strange and we have no canon to back  
> it up as normal. Why does it seem strange?

It seems strange because it violates the known rules given in TKD.

> If we didn't have this parallel English construction, there would not  
> have been anything to prepare us for {tajwIj qanob}. Since we do have  
> the construction in English, the Klingon is easy to understand.

Let's be clear about this. Okrand came up with the "prefix trick" on a 
message board, not in a book, which means it almost certainly wasn't a 
planned feature. I'll tell you — without evidence — what it was: his 
attention was called to a number of examples which violate the rules in 
TKD in a way that English speakers would find natural because of rules 
of English, so he backfit an explanation.

I was the one who coined the name "prefix trick," you know, and I did so 
sarcastically.

> Meanwhile, English doesn't allow us to say "My family travel," and  
> know that I'm counting myself as part of my family. Someone would  
> want to correct me and say, "My family travels." Make it third  
> person, not first.

Some dialects of English might allow "My family travel." I pointed out 
earlier that British English, for example, often treats singular nouns 
that refer to groups as if they were plural.

> Do  we know that doesn't happen in Klingon? No. Do we know it does  
> happen in Klingon? No.

But we DO know that it apparently violates rules set out in TKD. Given 
that at least, I'd stick to the book.

SuStel
Stardate 7918.2

Back to archive top level