tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 29 11:07:10 2009
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Re: intuition and grammar (was Re: Ditransitive reflexives)
I don't know of anyone who has but a full blown investigation into the Klingon language would be very beneficial for it's speakers.
----- Original Message -----
From: "eric mead" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:50:26 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: RE: intuition and grammar (was Re: Ditransitive reflexives)
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I share Andre's sentiment, and I was wondering if anyone has ever done a full-blown linguistic analysis of the more fluent speakers of Klingon??
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At some point, I imagine it will be relevant to 'analyze' the language as it has come to be used. Anyone tried?
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-ERIC
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> Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:55:41 +0100
> Subject: Re: intuition and grammar (was Re: Ditransitive reflexives)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
>
> 2009/10/28 <[email protected]>
> > If speakers are allowed to add their own grammar into the language,
> > doesn't that defeat the purpose of speaking the native language of the
> > Klingons? I don't know if I should be saying anything considering my n00b
> > status but I just couldn't help but seeing that. I know that in any other
> > language grammar is set in stone and never changed.
> > Just my two cents
> >
>
> Quite the contrary actually. No grammar is really "set in stone" (in the
> sense of 'may not change over time'). Grammar (as well as the lexicon and
> the semantics) in natural languages changes over time, due to speakers
> introducing new habits, stopping using certain forms or making "mistakes",
> which spread and get grammaticalized sometimes. Some of these changes we can
> notice ourselves.
> The only languages with a grammar "set in stone" that I could think of,
> would be constructed ones. Not Klingon, as Okrand adds stuff to it (not much
> and not too often, but still once in a while). Not Esperanto, as it has
> changed a little since its invention too... but those two languages'
> grammars get close to be "set in stone".
>
> So in Klingon, speakers (with the exception of Marc Okrand) are not allowed
> to change the grammar or to introduce new words, although there's no one
> really to punish them. ;)
>
> Prescriptive grammars in natural languages such as English or German are
> merely a snapshot of the grammar currently used by the majority of the
> people... and sometimes (at least for the German Duden grammar) it's partly
> obsolete and should be updated to reflect the modern grammar of the
> language.
>
> Just my two (Euro-)cents. :)
> - Andr�
>
>
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