Rotating Syntax

[labeadaloca]

It has been a while, and I've forgotton that the Klingon languages operate on a modulating, or a self-modulating rotating syntax.

What this means to me, as a linguist, is that the phrase:  "Walk the targ" could be simultaneously interpreted in a great many ways, like "Clean the house," "Kill them now" or even "Happy New Year."  Codification and decodification of syntax is nearly always in the brain, though we (humans) use grammar to help us understand the language we speak.  Klingon languages have 38 or more different types of grammar, thus complicating the situation.

So, my question is ... do Klingons speak a "pure" language when around alien races, or a highly modified and simplified language?

I can see how this type of syntactic and grammatic use appeared in the Klingon as a species; espionoge, warfare and long-term, aggressive hunting tactics, to name a few.  So I guess I have another question ... in our species, we were involved with hunting and gathering, and then quite possibly language arose because of those activities.  However, it appears that Klingons had language first, then became the warrior race they have evolved into.  Is this a correct view?

Thank you for your help ... I realize there's no "thank you" in Klingon ... but you must have had something similar to it at one time, only because of the hegemony practiced in Klingon Courts.

David Bingell

[ter'eS]

It has been a while, and I've forgotton that the Klingon languages operate on a modulating, or a self-modulating rotating syntax.

What this means to me, as a linguist, is that the phrase:  "Walk the targ" could be simultaneously interpreted in a great many ways, like "Clean the house," "Kill them now" or even "Happy New Year."  Codification and decodification of syntax is nearly always in the brain, though we (humans) use grammar to help us understand the language we speak.  Klingon languages have 38 or more different types of grammar, thus complicating the situation.

So, my question is ... do Klingons speak a "pure" language when around alien races, or a highly modified and simplified language?

I can see how this type of syntactic and grammatic use appeared in the Klingon as a species; espionoge, warfare and long-term, aggressive hunting tactics, to name a few.  So I guess I have another question ... in our species, we were involved with hunting and gathering, and then quite possibly language arose because of those activities.  However, it appears that Klingons had language first, then became the warrior race they have evolved into.  Is this a correct view?

Thank you for your help ... I realize there's no "thank you" in Klingon ... but you must have had something similar to it at one time, only because of the hegemony practiced in Klingon Courts.

David Bingell

If you are referring to Hoshi's comment about the Klingon language from the pilot of Enterprise, I consider that to be a load of hogwash.  "Rotating syntax" doesn't mean anything, at least according to current linguistic theory, and the only examples of Klingon languages that we have behave like normal, "non-rotating" languages.  Some writer with more imagination than language savvy decided to get cute; I'd advise you not to read too much into it.

[labeadaloca]

It can be hogwash, but by using syntax and grammar, one can understand to what hogwash Hoshi is referring, and how she is using it.  As far as current linguistic theory, Pinker makes some pretty well-educated theories as to how syntax and grammar work.  Drawing from his body of work, which is still current and considered "cutting edge" by quite a few linguists, the researcher is lead to draw their own conclusions in linguistic situations.  This is what I have done here, and will probably use in the future.

[Qunchuy]

The "over eighty poly-gutteral dialects constructed on an adaptive syntax" phrase is gibberish, plain and simple. It bears the same relationship to real linguistics as does Star Trek's occasional forays into genetics.

So, my question is ... do Klingons speak a "pure" language when around alien races, or a highly modified and simplified language?

I don't really care about the hypotheticals. All I know is that I speak as "pure" a language as I can manage when I'm among others who speak Klingon, beacuse I care about language as a means of communication.

(By the way, the Klingon language I speak does have a word for thank -- tlho' -- so I thank you is qatlho'.)

[ter'eS]

It can be hogwash, but by using syntax and grammar, one can understand to what hogwash Hoshi is referring, and how she is using it.  As far as current linguistic theory, Pinker makes some pretty well-educated theories as to how syntax and grammar work.  Drawing from his body of work, which is still current and considered "cutting edge" by quite a few linguists, the researcher is lead to draw their own conclusions in linguistic situations.  This is what I have done here, and will probably use in the future.

I don't exactly understand what you're trying to say here, but Steven Pinker's books on the origins of language don't give any credence to the ridiculous notion of "rotating" syntaxes.  The idea is illlogical on the face of it: language evolved to carry meaning, and grammar and syntax arose to codify the precise expression of meaning and lessen the computational burden of composing or comprehending each expression.  A language whose syntax changes arbitrarily (which is what I understand "rotating" to mean, if it means anything at all) would be the exact opposite of the function of language.  I could see such things being used in specialized situations (eg. as a battle-field code), as adjuncts to established languages, but definitely not as a primary language model.

And as I noted, both Klingonese and tlhIngan Hol, the only Klingon languages we know anything concrete about, are normal languages with stable grammars.