[2796] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: syntactic anomaly
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Jan 26 09:57:43 1994
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Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: angghal@aol.com
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 09:50:47 EST
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Nick's little lesson on ergative languages (something that's always been in
the back of my mind when looking at Klingon and causing me to shiver) reminds
me of something I've been meaning to mention on the list.
The KLI recently acquired a new member in Spain who is a native Basque
speaker. He was actually lured in after getting really ticked off at some
wild statements a newspaper printed about Klingon, including some examples of
things they claimed didn't occur in any human languages (don't ask me what
they were, becasue 1) I don't remember, 2) they were NOT quoting me, 3) I
think they just made them up!), and which this fellow immediately saw was
false because they exist in Basque (an ergative language, in case you didn't
know).
He hasn't come through yet with the "ergative perspective" that I've been
hoping for, but there's still plenty of time. One of the fun things about
ergative languages is that a lot of the rules we seem to have gotten pretty
comfortable with about language, some of the ideas which have gotten reified
in linguistics, get tossed out the window when you try apply them to ergative
languages. Long ago, back in my undergraduate days, after a professor had
outlined some universal or other (don't ask me what it was, 1) I don't
remember, 2) I'm not likely to remember due to the trauma that followed) and
then asked for questions. I raised my hand and innocently inquired "What
about for ergative languages? Would this work there?" The professor turned
bright red, and in a very tight voice replied in one word sentences. "We. Do.
Not. Discuss. Ergative. Languages. In. This. Class." He then relaxed a bit
(after glowering at me) and said, "Any other questions?" Another student
raised her hand and asked "Yeah, what are ergative languages?" I wont' go on
with further details of the classroom whipping I got. Let's just say I've
been interested in ergative languages ever since.
Lawrence
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:: Dr Lawrence M Schoen, Director ::
:: The Klingon Language Institute ::
:: POB 634, Flourtown, PA 19031 USA ::
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