The Judas Rose by Suzette Haden Elgin Page B

stopped and looked warily at her sister. It seemed unlikely that Delina would have made a semantic error of that kind. Unless it was a test. One of Delina’s responsibilities as older sister was the incessant testing of Willow’s linguistics skills; probably it was a test. If Willow missed it, poor Delina would be obliged to spend time explaining the error and providing examples and probing to be certain her little sister was acquiring the expertise expected of her. Willow spoke swiftly, to spare Delina all that bother.
    â€œPerhaps, Delina,” she said, “there’s a better choice for what Great-Grandmother Nazareth does with the thologys than the predicate ‘watch’. . . . Perhaps something should be chosen that does not require the use of sight.”
    Delina smiled and touched Willow’s hand, in reassurance. Yes. It had been a test.
    â€œAnd the mind’s eye?” she asked. “What about the mind’s eye?”
    â€œHmmm.” Willow was still so young that she found it difficult to do anything complex without the tip of her tongue creeping out of her mouth, a phenomenon she would have to get under firm control before she could be trusted in the interpreting booths. She concentrated now on keeping the unruly tongue where it belonged, firming her lips as a barrier, keeping the signs of her concentration from showing on her face as best she could. A quick check of Delina’s expression showed her that she was doing well, and she dropped her eyes to make the thinking easier.
    â€œYou might say it,” she said slowly. “You might . But I think there would have to be one of two things. Either you would have to have a context . . . somebody would already have to have been talking about mind’s eyes and so on . . . or you would have to make it open.”
    â€œ Overt , Willow,” Delina prompted.
    â€œOr you would have to make it overt. You would have to say ‘I think she’s just watching the thologys with her mind’s eye.’ ” Then she stopped and looked at her sister. “Or is it just one eye, Delina? Why don’t people say ‘the mind’s eyes,’ plural?”
    â€œWell, think about it! Think how silly it would be, imagining the mind with a pair of little images side by side, and inverting them and merging them into one, and running all that back through the optic system . . . or maybe forward through the optic system, not that it matters. Eyes of the body, you perceive; eye of the mind.”
    â€œThalehal wa!” Very nice . It was Nazareth’s voice, her eyes were open, and she was smiling at her great-granddaughters. “ Wil sha , dearloves. To what do I owe the honor of this visit?”
    â€œTo the men, Natha,” said Delina. “And to our bad manners, I guess. We’ve interrupted you.”
    Nazareth didn’t deny that, since it was obvious, but she held out her arms and gathered them both in, to lay her cheek against each small head in turn and to administer a firm welcoming hug.
    â€œI am happy to have you here, nevertheless,” she told them. “The thologys will wait, and there are always more of them.”
    â€œYou do . . .” Willow began, and then she stopped again. “Shoot!” she said. “It’s a lexical gap, Delina. You can’t say it.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou can’t say to Great-Grandmother, ‘You do watch the thologys with your eyes closed, don’t you?’ because it’s thewrong predicate. And I can’t use ‘listen’ if she’s doing it with her mind’s eye. Drat! Why hasn’t somebody fixed that?”
    â€œI have a suggestion,” said Delina.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œSay, ‘You watch the thologys with your eyelids closed,’ and bypass the whole mess.”
    â€œ No , Lina! That would still mean ‘perceive with the eyes,’ plural, to me. It’s still