tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 26 13:50:15 1998
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Re: Inherently Plural Nouns
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Inherently Plural Nouns
- Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 15:47:19 -0500 (CDT)
tu'wI':
>What are the inherently plural nouns? Their singular counterparts that, along
>with the suffix -mey, give the "scattered about" connotation? I know of
>veng/cha, chuyDaH/vIj, and DoS/ray'. Are there more?
My list:
> begh deflectors
> chuyDaH thrusters (sg. vIj)
> cha torpedoes (sg. peng)
> ghISDen scales
> HoSDo' energy beings (pl. only?)
> jo resources (sg. Sup)
> lolSeHcha attitude control thrusters
> negh soldiers (sg. mang; cf. KGT 49f for discussion)
> no' ancestors (sg. qempa')
> ngop plates (sg. jengva')
> paSlogh socks
> pu'DaH phaser banks
> QaS troops (not including officers)
> Quv coordinates
> ray' targets (sg. DoS)
> wey ship's crew complement (crew + officers; cf. KGT 50)
> 'aH paraphernalia
And I later added these:
> Duj instincts (grammatically sg. AND pl.)
> jIb hair on head
> pob hair on body
charghwI':
: I wonder about this list. The problem I have with it is that
: the {-mey} suffix to indicate "scattered all about" meaning
: applies to inherently plural nouns WITH A SINGULAR COUNTERPART,
: like {DoS/ray'}, and the {-mey} is applied to the SINGULAR
: version. {DoSmey} means "targets scattered all about". Who
: knows WHAT {ray'mey} means? I don't.
Agreed. tu'wI''s question concerned this small class of inherently plural
noun with known singular counterparts. But of course, I'm under no
obligation to stick to someone else's agenda. While searching my notes for
plural nouns, I found some odd items I thought would lead to a more
interesting discussion on Klingon views of plurality.
Some may in fact have different singular forms, we just don't know them yet.
If there is NO distinct singular form, how does a Klingon refer to the one
{paSlogh} he lost in the laundry? If you are discussing one of the
malfunctioning {lolSeHcha}, do you say {vIj} - or does {chuyDaH/vIj} refer
to the considerably larger main (impulse) power thrusters/rockets on a ship?
Okrand probably thought of {HoSDo'} as referring to energy beings like the
Organians, but how do you refer to only one of them? (Perhaps Klingons
don't; since they are amorphous masses of energy, how would you really know
if there is only one present?) Are body coverings like {ghISDen}, {jIb} and
{pob} seen as contiguous materials - like {DIr} - or can you talk about a
single scale or hair? Does {Quv} consist of discrete components for
locations along the X, Y and Z axes, or is it seen more as one entire unit,
useless without the other part(s)? Who knows? Well, maybe Maltz does, of
course...
: So, what is the singular counterpart to {begh}? I don't think
: there is one. So, for the given rule the question was meant to
: serve, I think that for once, our excellent voragh missed. It
: doesn't happen very often. Take a picture, quick...
You're right, of course - {begh} probably doesn't have a singular
counterpart, at least not in Klingon. I included it on the list since the
English word is plural, but the Klingon is grammatically singular and this
is an important distinction to keep in mind. What is singular in one
language is often plural (or even dual!) in another. Other words of this
sort are probably {pu'DaH} and {'aH}.
{wey} is a special case, consisting of {QaS} + {yaS(pu')}; a single member
of a ship's {wey} is called a {beq}, unless you really need to be more
specific. Oddly enough, Okrand didn't use {wey} in the following example
from the change of command ceremony in KGT:
beq may' ta vIlajpu'
I have accepted the crew's record of battle.
Come to think of it, {beq} is even more interesting, since it means "crew,
company, etc." (cf. {pu'beq} "phaser crew") as well as an individual
"crewman". (Cf. {Qo'noSDaq paw cha' DIvI' beq} from PK.) Is it two
separate words, or is it seen as both singular and plural - like {Duj}
"instincts"?
Well, that should start up a good discussion. Certainly more interesting
than arguing which plural suffix is used with talking computers or trained
parrots!
Voragh