tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 13 20:32:55 1998
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RE: The Four Questions
- From: "Eric Andeen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: The Four Questions
- Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 20:31:22 -0700
- Importance: Normal
<The Four Questions> luqel Qov, Tad je.
>}Although {Hoch rammey} means "all nights" and not "all other nights,"
>}this is probably the way I'd translate it. Something more "accurate"
>}like {Hoch latlh rammey} seems awkward to me.
>
>I think the original is quite deliberately explicit, so I would say the
full
>{Hoch latlh rammey}. The English could have been "all others" but isn't.
>Seqram will have translated it from the original Hebrew, which is the only
>reasonable way to do it, so I'll not comment further on interpretations,
>just grammar.
The Klingon superlative {N1 X law' Hoch X puS} construction does give some
reason to believe that {Hoch} could in the right context mean <all others>
or <everything else>. In proper English, when making a superlative
comparison (as opposed to just using the superlative form of the verb, which
is usually the case), the thing is compared against "anything else" or
"everything else" or something similar. Children are often corrected when
they say "this is better thay anything", at least when they have English
teachers as parents.
The {law' puS} construction is certainly a special case, so I won't argue
that {Hoch} MUST be able to mean <everything else>, but it is worth thinking
about.
pagh