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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: sf & language
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References: <5e0tlb$igt$1@darla.visi.com> <5evmbg$b0f@fcnews.fc.hp.com> <5f0bka$4c6@ccshst05.cs.uoguelph.ca> <3317e47b.116822589@nntp.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 18:01:06 GMT
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In article <3317e47b.116822589@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
Harvey White <madyn@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>On 26 Feb 1997 03:45:14 GMT, gwiseman@uoguelph.ca (Loki) wrote:
>
>>In ashen ink, Chuck Buckley (cbuckley@fc.hp.com) inscribed:
>>
>>I couldn't suspend my 
>>disbelief because without a basis for communication of allegories, 
>>allegorical communication is pointless--that the translator could break 
>>apart the alien language into sensible components indicates that a real 
>>language structure is there.
>
>Trek requires a willing suspension of disbelief.....
>
>All of it.

This is, in short, why I am not a Trek fan and not likely to ever become
one.

>Nice ideas about an allegorical language, but as others (Gharlane, I
>think) have said:  That's nice, but how do you tell somebody that the
><technobabble on>
>  Warp core pressure is 10,000 KPA above the tolerance level
><Technobabble off>
>
>The other problem with an allegorical language that just stood up and
>said "hello" to me, is this:
>
>If everything is an allegory, how do you talk about something new?
>How do you do it with any facility?  What was the allegorical
>expression for "OOOH Look, an alien race that we've never seen
>anything like before."

Now, this I can actually see being done.  Think of all the allegorical
references to space as the "New Frontier".  All you would need is some
kind of contact situation (comparable to Columbus' voyage in our history)
enshrined in your source material.

>Good for situations we already know, lousy for new information,
>impossible for hard data.  Maybe there was another language we don't
>know about...  Naah, that would be reverse engineering a trek bobble,
>and we know that doesn't happen...

Therefore, it could only have evolved in a stagnant, low-tech society.  Is
that how the aliens were presented?  (I admit, I wasn't paying much
attention.)

[For my objections to the scenario, see my other post on the subject]


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
