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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/16/2021 9:52 AM, Will Martin
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:B44A566A-D4C7-4800-B560-437135431479@mac.com">
<div class="">We’ll just have to disagree.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">You are rejecting my point simply because you don’t
like the conclusion. You are determined to press your case
fixating on the MEANING of a Replacement Proverb, which we
cannot understand because it’s an ancient proverb fossilized and
repeated until nobody knows what it means, but they know when to
say it, like responding to a surprising revelation in English
with, “How about that!”, which uses a combination of words that
make no sense together whatsoever, but we all know “what it
means” because we’ve witnessed so many people utter it under
similar circumstances.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">So, here’s your new assignment:</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Explain what “How about that!” means in English,
breaking down the grammar and explaining the choice of each word
in relation to the meaning of the sentence.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">When you can do that, I will be eagerly reading your
insightful deconstruction of Klingon Replacement Proverbs.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>I think you're missing his point. Whether or not the Klingon
proverb is a fossilized expression, the fact is that we do have a
translation of it as if it were a sentence constructed from modern
grammar. <b>reH latlh qabDaq qul tuj law' Hoch tuj puS</b> is
translated <i>The fire is always hotter on someone else's face.</i>
Whatever the true meaning, structure, and origin of the Klingon,
it was translatable. Whether that translation is an accurate
interpretation of the Klingon is another question. But the point
is that some meaning, somewhere, was taken out of it and
translated into an English sentence.</p>
<p>You gave <i>How about that!</i> as an example of an
untranslatable English expression. This is something different
than the above. If we accept your claim of untranslatability as
true (and I don't, because the Klingon expression <b>toH!</b>
seems to get quite close), then it is inapplicable to this
discussion of a translated superlative.</p>
<p>(I have read that <i>how about that</i> comes from the more
general <i>how about [blank]?</i>, which is an alternative of <i>what
about that,</i> which in turn comes from an archaic <i>what say
you about [blank]?</i> So the grammar here is unmysterious. The
<i>how</i> is asking your reaction:<i> how</i> do you react? The <i>about
that</i> is specifying what you are supposed to react to. The
expression is used rhetorically: I express my surprise as the
answer to my own question. <i>How about that</i> may be a fixed
expression with a fixed meaning, but that meaning is not
completely lost in archaic grammar.)</p>
<p>I think you're both assuming too much. You're assuming the
expression cannot be analyzed in the normal way. De'vID is
assuming that the English translation accurately reflects the
meaning of the Klingon proverb. I don't think either position is
clearly supportable. The Klingon sentence is odd, the English
translation is odd, and no Klingon has explained it further.<br>
</p>
<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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