[tlhIngan Hol] the problem with {naw'wat}

[SuStel]

On 9/13/2021 7:40 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> nIqolay Q:
>> What remote, desolate, big places do you have in mind?
> SuStel:
>> Because the word refers to a place, not an area. It refers to a place isolated in a desolate area,
>> which makes the place relatively small. If the place were large, it wouldn't be isolated in its desolation.
> I'm confused by this distinction between "place" and "area"; so I'll
> write an example.
>
> You set out to visit the rocky mountains, but your gps malfunctions.
> You end up driving hours in the wilderness, and after having driven on
> some godforsaken dirt road, you exit your car, not having seen a
> single sign of civilization for the past 300 miles. All you see, is
> uncultivated, untouched by human hand, wilderness, as far as the eye
> can see.
>
> Don't you call that in english "remote, desolate place"?

I call your current position a remote, desolate place, but I don't call 
the entire desolation that.

Suppose your house stands on the edge of a desert. Every day you wake up 
and look out your southern windows and see only desolation. You look out 
your northern windows and see your city. The area of desolation to your 
south is not remote — it's right there.

Now go out into the desert. You're far from anybody or any human 
dwelling. You stand in one spot and consider that spot remote (from 
others) and desolate. The whole desert isn't remote, just particular 
spots in the desert. And compared to the entire desert, that one spot is 
small. It's the same desert as when you were looking at it from your 
house, but now you're isolated inside it.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name
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