tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Apr 18 11:33:45 2003
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RE: 'aH tIQ
> If I had said "If angry mobs (plural) could think" then yes that could be
> confusing. If all angry mobs could think then where is the rare
> event? But what I wrote was
>
> QublaHchugh ghom'a' QeH vaj qubbej wanI'vetlh.
>
> "If an angry crowd (singular) could think, then that would be a
> rare event."
>
> The sentence mentions only the one hypothetical event of an angry crowd
> thinking. It is because angry mobs are not usually capable of thinking
> that makes it a rare event when they do.
That klingon sentence can be singular or plural.
It is not unambiguously singular.
I have no problem at all with your sentence. It is grammatical and it does
mean what you say it does. But you have to admit, /wanI'vetlh/ COULD also
refer to the act of looting, which was the first thought that came to my
mind, and it did make sense, so I didn't re-analyze the sentence.
DloraH