[tlhIngan Hol] lawn mower

[SuStel]

On 7/27/2016 10:24 AM, Ed Bailey wrote:
>
> jatlh Rhona Fenwick:
>
> I don't see anything wrong with saying someone {qIvDu'Daj weqtaH} "is 
> drumming on their knees with their palms".
>
> jang SuStel:
>
> In that case, your knees are a percussion instrument. You haven't 
> deviated from the disambiguator at all--
>
> This first of all assumes the purpose of drumming on knees is to make 
> music, and second, we don't know Klingons would consider a body part 
> so used to be instrument. When the voice is spoken of as an 
> instrument, it bends the usage for effect. But even if the knee 
> slapping is to express amusement, it's understandably similar to 
> playing a drum.
>

*weq* doesn't mean /hit an object which just happens to be a percussion 
instrument, whether or not the hitting is intended to make music./ If a 
car were to ram into a drum, that would not be *weq,* but it certainly 
would be a kind of hit.

If you're rhythmically slapping your knees, or even just once when timed 
for audible effect, that's *weq.* If you just happen to hit your knees 
once at random, that's not *weq.*

**

> jatlh SuStel:
>
> It simply does not follow Okrand's pattern to say that hair is only 
> one kind of thing that you can *chIp.* He wasn't giving one possible 
> example; he was telling us the sense of the verb. This doesn't prevent 
> you from using the verb beyond its literal meaning, just as English 
> doesn't prevent me from saying I'll give the lawn a buzz cut.
>
> There's no evidence in Star Trek of Klingon lawns. Even among humans, 
> it's something of a local fad. Klingons would probably find 
> lawn-keeping to be bizarre behavior. In that case, they might well 
> speak metaphorically (and mockingly) of giving the grass field a haircut.
>

You're playing the "a Klingon would" game again.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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