[tlhIngan Hol] ordering and scope of adverbials relative to timestamps

[De'vID]

On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 00:08, Will Martin <willmartin2 at mac.com> wrote:

> Remember that Worf told us, “Klingons may be inaccurate, but they are
> never approximate.”
>

As others have pointed out, just because there's a stereotype about a
*culture* doesn't mean that you can't say things in the *language* of that
culture which go against that stereotype. The discussion here isn't about
what a hypothetical Klingon might say instead of what I had wanted to say.
It's about how to express what I had wanted to say in the Klingon language
(whether or not a stereotype Klingon would be inclined to say the same
thing).


> I honestly believe that “Almost a year ago” is vague and adds very little
> to the sentence. {qaSpu’. Daqaw’a’?} {qaSpu’ ‘ej vIlIjQo’!} The
> significance is not that it’s almost a year ago. The significance is that
> it happened, and you have not forgotten it. How will having it be a year
> ago add meaning to the occurrence when that time threshold occurs? You are
> assuming a significance to the concept of an anniversary that may be
> gibberish to a Klingon.
>

Okay, so nobody has to assume anything, because what I said took place in
an actual conversation. Here's the context: I was telling someone about a
death that occurred almost a year ago, where it is understood that the
period leading up to the anniversary is significant in the deceased
person's culture. Stating that the death occurred "almost a year ago" (but
not exactly a year ago, or just a little bit more than a year ago) was
specifically important *in the context of this particular conversation*.

Whatever view you may think a hypothetical Klingon might have on the
significance or insignificance of anniversaries, that an event happened
"almost a year ago" is specifically important in the context of the
conversation I was having. You're arguing about an answer to a different
question than the one I asked.

-- 
De'vID
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