schedule --getting off topic

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Monday, January 29, 2001 1:19 pm -0500 Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:
>>>>>>
> Nancy Elliott writes:
>
> Captain Picard is supposed to be French, right? So maybe he doesn't have
> to conform to British norms.
>
> I don't know what the official line is on Picard; culturally he's a lot
> more English. ST has never been noted for background consistency. I'll ask
> around, though.
>

Picard grew up in France (he goes home in one episode and fights with his
brother).  But with the Universal Translator they have in Star Trek, you
don't know...maybe he's speaking French all the time, but we're hearing it
as English (and it translates 'shedule' into 'skedule' for us Americans).
The one thing that always bothers me about the Universal Translator is that
even though some character is speaking Ferengi or something, their lips
move as if they're speaking English.  Something like the McGurk effect
going on?

Lynne



M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320