Your suspicion is correct. On 7/26/2016 2:15 PM, Elizabeth Lawrence wrote:
I suspect you would agree that <<magh vIchIp>> is no more incorrect than "I give the lawn a haircut." I will be satisfied with that.
be''etlh
On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 1:55 PM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name <mailto:sustel@trimboli.name>> wrote:
On 7/26/2016 1:35 PM, Elizabeth Lawrence wrote:
No, I would not speak of mowing someone's hair, but I would certainly speak of trimming the lawn. <<chIp>> is glossed as "cut, trim (hair)".
But the English word /trim/ doesn't mean "cut hair." It means "make shorter by cutting." The Klingon word *chIp,* however, means "make /hair/ shorter by cutting." English /trim/ can be applied to things other than hair, and is not even especially associated with hair.
When hair is cut or trimmed, it is shortened for aesthetic effect. I don't know that Klingons have the notion of mowing lawns at all, and "Giving the grass a haircut" is certainly much more descriptive of what is happening than "Cutting the grass" would be to people who have no tradition of mown lawns.
Maltz gave us the phrase *magh yotlh,* so he at least understands the concept and could declare a "correct" phrase for it.
Whether "giving the grass a haircut" is a better description of the act than "cutting the grass" is subjective, and I'm not sure I agree that it's more descriptive. One relies on metaphor; the other is straightforward. And there are other reasons to mow grass than just for aesthetics: sports fields need to be mown if they are grassy; tall grass can support dangerous fauna, obstruct vision, and hinder the operation of vehicles; some animals eat hay. Since *magh* is a Klingon plant /like/ grass, they must deal with it from time to time, either obliterating it or mowing it. Or maybe even using it decoratively.
I will continue with magh chIpwI' as the much more evocative
...and incorrect...
phrase.
I dislike playing the "a Klingon would" game, where we project our ideas of what a Klingon would do/say/believe/prefer and use that straw man as an argument for Klingon grammar. Barring information from Okrand, using *chIp* as /mow/ is, at best, poetic license. The standard verb is *pe'*/cut./ If you like, use *runmoH* /shorten/ along with it to get your point across.
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name