tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 24 15:18:57 2009
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Re: pu'jIn
- From: Christopher Doty <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: pu'jIn
- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:17:06 -0800
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> I doubt I'd go through this reasoning if I were to encounter this in
> text or in a conversation.
Why? It says what it means. There isn't any reasoning to go through.
It says "The science of making (building) plans."
> Putting aside for the moment the issue of
> whether we can create new compound nouns,
I can create any compound noun I want. Does Okrand say that compound
nouns are not allowed somewhere?
> I see "(building) map/plan
> making science." {pu'jIn chenmoHghach QeD} (or, more simply, {pu'jIn
> QeD}) makes me think of cartography, not architecture, and I'm not sure
> adding {qach} would clarify it sufficiently.
That is because you are a native speaker of English (or some other
non-Klingon language), and we have two different words for 'map' and
'building plan'. With building to clarify, there really isn't
anything else it could mean, unless there is some sort of science in
Klingon for studying those little maps that you find in shopping
malls.
> It's a rather unwieldy term in any case.
So? This is how languages actually do this sort of thing (German and
Finnish being two rather well-known examples). The comparative
construction which started this thread is horribly unwieldy from an
English perspective, but this says nothing about whether it is right
or not.
> What you have here is an example of what we call "hindsight words":
These are not "hindsight words," they are circumlocutions.
> terms that you invent through a logical derivation, but which only make
> sense when you already know what they're supposed to mean.
I honestly don't know how you could see "The science of making
building plans" and not understand what that means.
> This tends to
> happen a lot when trying to come up with ways of translating scientific
> or professional jargon. One should always try to eliminate hindsight
> words from one's Klingon.
Who? Why? Where? Does Okrand say this somewhere? Or is this your own
pearl of wisdom?