tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Apr 24 20:10:08 2004

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Re: Probability

...Paul ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004, QeS lagh wrote:
> However, the recent suggestion {vaghmaH vatlhvI' DIch 'oH DuH'e'} seems to
> fill most of the blanks. {vaghmaH vatlhvI' DIch} appears to work similarly
> to {cha'maH vagh vatlhvI' Hong}. Playing devil's advocate, though, I'm not
> sure whether you can have fifty percent of a certainty; it strikes me as
> somewhat weird, like saying "half a hole" or "a little bit pregnant" in
> English.

But you *can* have "half an orange" or "half a year".  What's a certainty
but a 100% chance?  I think it works exceedingly well.

There's an English phrase, "half a chance", but I believe that is more
idiomatic and so it wouldn't make sense to say /vaghmaH vatlhvI' DuH/ (or
even /bID DuH/...  I hadn't realized /vatlhvI'/ gets used as a number, but
it makes my worries of a noun-number-noun construction go away.

I think there's a /Hutvagh vatlhvI' DIch/ chance this is a good rule of
thumb.  :)

...Paul

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