[3468] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Generic Ideas
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Feb 25 14:09:35 1994
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.East.Sun.COM
From: mark <mark@dragonsys.COM>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 13:42:27 EST
charghwI' writes:
* * *
Consider that "a-" in English usually means "without reference to", as
in "asexual", "agnostic", "asymmetrical" and "assorted". I had a revellation
about that last word recently. It really means, "without reference to
sorting." The prefix "non-" usually means "not", "without" or "opposite of".
"Nongreasy", "nonfat", "nonviolent". Then again, we screw up with words like
"nonjudgemental", which should probably be "ajudgemental", and we have
reversed "atheistic" and "nontheistic" altogether from what they "should" be.
* * *
That "a-" is a Greek prefix meaning 'without': without sex,
without knowledge, without symmetry (symmetry = 'same
measurement'). The "aS-" in "assorted" is unrelated; the word
is from Middle French "a-" (from Latin "ad-"), meaning
'to', + "sorte" 'type, kind'. "To assort" means (or meant; I
don't think I've ever seen it used except in the past participle
"-ed" form) 'to sort, put into classes; to prepare an appropriate
group of representatives of types'. So "assorted" DOESN'T mean
'randomly mixed', but rather something like 'selected'. And
"atheistic" is analyzable as 'without (a) god', which is
reasonably close to its meaning, 'believing that there is no
god'.
"Non-" usually does NOT mean 'opposite of' in English, though
"un-" often does. In each of the words charghwI' cites, "non-"
can be satisfactorily understood as cancelling the meaning of the
base word rather than reversing it; technically, it forms a
contradictory negative rather than a contrary one. (You might
think of it mathematically as multiplying by 0 rather than by
-1.)
Though no tlhIngan Hol pabpo', I am reasonably well qualified in
English, and I didn't want charghwI''s plausible but erroneous
analysis to stand unchallenged on the list. Since this branch of
the discussion has strayed far from tlhIngan Hol, please address
any replies privately to me, and to charghwI' as well if you see
fit.
- marqem
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : mark@dragonsys.com
