[tlhIngan Hol] using {ngan} as a suffix {ngan} as the suffix {-ngan}

[Alan Anderson]

On Jan 26, 2022, at 11:32 AM, Iikka Hauhio <fergusq at protonmail.com> wrote:
> 
> So if I interpret you correctly, you argue that Klingons themselves label some compounds as lexicalized as some as not, on a basis unknown to us. Then Okrand depicts this fictional lexicalization with the spaces.

Where you are getting your interpretation is mysterious. Okrand “depicts” lexicalization of a term the same way any linguist does: by including it in a dictionary. This is explicit in the first paragraph of TKD section 3.4. The noun-noun construction. Read it yourself and reflect that it contradicts a lot of both what you’re saying and what you’re misconstruing others as saying.

SuStel has repeated his core statement more than enough times: the convention here is to use spaces in noun-noun constructions. The pragmatic reason is because it makes it possible for people to read them as written. (There’s also a prescriptive argument pointing out that TKD tells us how to interpret spaceless compounds when we see them, but when it tells us that we can make something like them ourselves it uses spaces between the words.)

-- ghunchu'wI'