380
It's a peaceful life (europe.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by [M] to c/tenforward@lemmy.world
72 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

TNG s5e2 " Darmok"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The thing is how would they have even constructed the phrases in the first place?

To use the word 'and' to construct the phrase in the first place, it already had to mean combining the two. Similarly "at" has to have the meaning to specificy the location. On top of Darmok, Jalad, and Tanagra all having names independent of the phrase.

We couldn't have done "Juliet on her balcony" without being able to understand what a balcony even is or Juliet independent of the scene. This also means we can take the larger narrative and break it down into that key piece for the metaphor.

Maybe instead they once had a language and it eroded away into just memes, but then how did they manage to synthesize "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel" in the end?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    I've thought about this way too much as well, and my belief is that they don't actually understand the individual words. The entire idiom conveys the idea, and the individual parts are lost etymology. Like how "bye" conveys a departure but you don't need to have a concept of God to understand it, even though it derives from "God be with you."

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Ok, but then how to generate the new metaphor like they did to honor Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    Balls. Well, I guess we'll have to assume they understand "and" and "at" at the very least. In that case, new idioms of (person) at (place) could be created, but "Shaka, when the walls fell" would be an idiom from the language spoken beforehand.

    And this is just my tortured excuse, but the premise falls apart otherwise.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •