Lesson 3 - Critical Inference (SPRING 2024)

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

Recall the prompt for this part of Assignment 3:

I showed Basl a few more images; he described each of them with a sentence in Parseltongue. The images are linked below (with small English language descriptions directly underneath serving the role of alt text), along with how Basl described each of them. Note that the English and Parseltongue descriptions are NOT necessarily direct translations of each other!


IMAGE 1:

Image shows an open book; a red rose is in on top of the pages, casting a dark shadow.
'Tasi hasli ara fasi pard abna aʃe rine.'

IMAGE 2:

Image shows a fluffy, fat cat lying on his back on a brown, unpaved path. Green grass grows on either side of the cat.
'Fasi peslʃis gorna fasi fasar sliʃe sobne.'

IMAGE 3:

Image shows a dog standing on the edge of a clear lake. The dog's fur is white in front and brown in back.
The dog wears a reddish pink collar.
'Fasi doʃe ʃira asa gara fasi nigi bana gariʃe rine.'

To earn the full ten points, please do the following two things.
1. Pick one word from one of those three images that did not appear in Lesson 2 or 3. Post in this thread with an explanation of what you think that word means and why. (DO NOT use later lessons or the class word list as your only explanation!)
2. In the same thread, reply to someone else's post explaining whether or not you agree with their translation. Make sure to choose a different word than the one you chose for the previous part! If no one else has replied to this post by April 25 I will make my own post for you to reply to.

[Katelin Ross]

The only word in either of the three sentences that we do not know the definition of is the word asa. When translating the other words into English, the word asa is best translated into with. The rest of the first part of the sentence talks about what colors the dog has, so it would make sense that the translated sentence, "That dog white asa brown" would work with the word, "with."

[Sophia Williams]

I chose the first image with the sentence: 'Tasi hasli ara fasi pard abna aʃe rine.'
I think the word “abna” means “open” in English.
I first tried to translate the sentence to English, without looking at the translation of abna. It gives: this flower red that book “abna” be in. (English: this red flower is in that “abna” book).
From there, I know that the abjective is always located right after the subject. The adjective “abna” is related to the subject “pard”, which means “book”. In the image, we can see that the flower is on an open book, so I deduced that “abna” means “open”.

[Sophia Williams]

The only word in either of the three sentences that we do not know the definition of is the word asa. When translating the other words into English, the word asa is best translated into with. The rest of the first part of the sentence talks about what colors the dog has, so it would make sense that the translated sentence, "That dog white asa brown" would work with the word, "with."

I agree with this translation.
I first tried to translate the sentence, which gave me “that dog white “asa” brown that river cold stand in). As Katelin stated, the first part of the sentence is referring to the colour of the dog. The word “asa” is between two colours (white and brown) so translating “asa” with “with” makes sense.

[Katelin Ross]

I chose the first image with the sentence: 'Tasi hasli ara fasi pard abna aʃe rine.'
I think the word “abna” means “open” in English.
I first tried to translate the sentence to English, without looking at the translation of abna. It gives: this flower red that book “abna” be in. (English: this red flower is in that “abna” book).
From there, I know that the abjective is always located right after the subject. The adjective “abna” is related to the subject “pard”, which means “book”. In the image, we can see that the flower is on an open book, so I deduced that “abna” means “open”.

I agree with Sophia that abna means open. The words around it describe the red flower and the book that it is in. The book is open rather than closed, so open makes sense in this sentence.