[86704] in tlhIngan-Hol

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intuition and grammar (was Re: Ditransitive reflexives)

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ghunchu'wI')
Wed Oct 28 08:03:25 2009

In-Reply-To: <BLU144-W13ED69BDB8BCD3FAB35738A7B80@phx.gbl>
From: "ghunchu'wI'" <qunchuy@alcaco.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:56:26 -0400
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org

On Oct 28, 2009, at 3:48 AM, eric mead wrote:

> And that actually brings me to my larger question. What happens in  
> the culture of tlhIngan Hol if there is found an area of the  
> grammar that seems problematic and/or just missing and the fluent  
> speakers have an intuition (generally agreed upon) about it?? Does  
> that become another resource? Or are speakers not 'allowed' to add  
> their own intuitions to the grammar?

Speakers can use whatever intuition or pet theories or personal  
preferences they want.  However, nobody here has the authority to add  
anything to the grammar.  If what someone says makes sense, others  
are free to adopt its use as well.  If it isn't in conflict with the  
officially published rules of the language, it might even become  
widely popular.  Even so, there will usually be some who are more  
conservative and resist trendy things until and unless they are  
sanctioned by Marc Okrand.

The basic goal is for someone to be able to learn Klingon well using  
only the published books as a resource.  Where there's a hole in the  
grammar (e.g. subjunctive), the basic advice is to avoid it, not to  
fill it.

-- ghunchu'wI'






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