Re: Conlang T Shirt

>From: "Grandsire, C.A." " <grandsir@...>"
>Subject:      Re: Conlang T-shirt
Really, what is the semantics of "Your language goes here" in English?

I imagine a situation where a host says to a guest, "Your coat goes in
this closet". Is it an imperative? I don't think so. It's like saying
"Your coat belongs in this closet". It's information about the way
things are done. Or a math teacher could say to a student, "The tens go
in the second column from the right." It is a convention.
It borders on an imperative but it doesn't seem to have the serious
consequences that the subjunctive requires.

Then again, I can imagine another situation where I am applying my
update sticker to my license plate and the instructions from the
California Motor Vehicle Department say "This sticker goes here" with a
diagram. It's an order, it has consequences.

Well, anyway, my translation for NGL just begged the question by
simply calqueing the English, there's no attempt at interpretation.
Some languages may not allow that.

"Your signature goes here"

Jerry.

>
>Fabian wrote:
>>
>> French - My best guess was "votre langue va ici", but then, what do I know?
>> Your offering is as good as any and better than most. "Votre langue soit
>> ici" seems ok, not quite sure why "que" is there. Do we have a native French
>> speaker to do this one?
>>
>
>        In this sentence, "que" is mandatory. In fact, the subjunctive in
>French needs to be preceeded by a conjunction and cannot appear in a
>plain sentence, so "votre langue soit ici" is incorrect. Anyway, I still
>think that "Mettez votre langue ici", despite it's less a direct
>translation, is a better equivalent to "your language goes here", at
>least for the feeling it gives to me. And I am a native French speaker
>:) . Please help me Mathias! You're the only one on this list that uses
>French everyday (I think I'm losing mine as I speak French only one or
>two hours a day!).
>
>> ---
>> Fabian ta' lajzar
>>
>--
>        Christophe Grandsire
>
>        Philips Research Laboratories --  Building WB 145
>        Prof. Holstlaan 4
>        5656 AA Eindhoven
>        The Netherlands
>
>        Phone:  +31-40-27-45006
>        E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com
>