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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/8/2019 7:22 PM, nIqolay Q wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at
6:08 PM Will Martin <<a
href="mailto:willmartin2@mac.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">willmartin2@mac.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<div>Remember that Worf told us, “Klingons may be
inaccurate, but they are never approximate.”</div>
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class="gmail_default"><b>Dochmey law' jatlhpu' wo'rIv. </b>This
information was provided in CK in the context of Klingon
punctuality and telling hourly time. There, it makes
sense in the context that if a Klingon tells you they'll
meet you at 1500 hours, they will meet you at 1500
hours, not 1455 or 1505. It makes less sense to
generalize it to all Klingon behavior all the time.
Thanks to <a
href="http://www.st-minutiae.com/resources/scripts/"
moz-do-not-send="true">this collection of Star Trek
shooting scripts</a>, I <i>know</i> it doesn't apply
to Klingon behavior all the time:</div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>T<span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">he
existence of the words <b>DISjaj</b> and <b>qoS</b>
suggests otherwise.</span>
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<p>Thanks for the list (snipped). That's exactly what I'm talking
about.</p>
<p>Regarding drawing linguistic conclusions based on cultural
stereotypes:</p>
<p>The French are a romantic people. French is commonly referred to
as the language of love. Therefore you can't really say "I hate
you" in French. In a culture of love, why would anyone want to say
that? What does it bring to the conversation?</p>
<p>Russians are a blunt and serious people. When you speak Russian,
you can't really express joy or subtlety; it just doesn't fit,
culturally. Expressions of happiness will just make Russians look
at you like you're crazy.</p>
<p>The Japanese prize politeness to a degree not seen in the Western
world. When you try to translate Japanese to English, it always
sounds impossibly polite and formal. When trying to speak
Japanese, you always have to be polite. There are no insults in
Japanese except polite ones.</p>
<p>These are exaggerated examples, but they should make the point:
you can't determine the grammar or expressions of a language just
by citing the cultural stereotypes of the people who speak it.
Worf says "A Klingon may be inaccurate, but he is never
approximate." This doesn't mean that when telling a story about
some time in the past you have to tell the exact time or shut up.
It means when precision is called for, you use it. If you walk
into a shop to buy fifty ion triggers, you'd better tell the shop
owner that you want to buy fifty ion triggers, not that you want
"some ion whatchamacallits." But if you're telling a story about
what happened to you last year, if the exact date is not
important, then it's perfectly fine to say "last year" or "almost
a year ago." That's not a situation that calls for accuracy.
Therefore if you can find a way to say it in Klingon, it's
sayable.<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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