tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Aug 23 21:53:51 2003

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Re: Grammar Question

Mark E. Shoulson ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

Mark E. Shoulson wrote:

>
> It also *may* call into question whether or not it's sensible to 
> "have" a forehead. "Have" is a notoriously polysemous word in English 
> (you "have" a book, a test in Biology on Thursday, and a cold in three 
> very different ways, and that's just the first few that came to 
> mind).  {ghaj} is given as "have, possess", leading me to think it 
> leans closer to the "possession" meaning of "have" than others.  One 
> does not "possess" one's forehead (you might possess another one, 
> though, say mounted on your wall). 

You know, just after mailing the last letter, I realized that there's 
probably canon for {ghaj} and body parts.  Isn't there something about 
22 ribs, an expression meaning "not quite all there"?  I'm too lazy to 
look it up; one of you canon-jockeys out there can find it faster.

I don't think this actually changes what I was saying; I still think 
it's cleaner to use {tIn ghIchwIj} than {ghIch tIn vIghaj}. 

~mark

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