tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 25 18:32:54 2004

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[tlhIngan-Hol] {-'a'}, {-Hom}, and size

sangqar ([email protected])

• From: [email protected]
• Subject: [tlhIngan-Hol] {-'a'}, {-Hom}, and size
• Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 19:32:04 -0700
• In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
• Priority: normal

> -'a' and -Hom do not mean size.  Sure, most of the time, the items do tend to 
> be bigger/smaller.

Well, they don't *just* mean size.  But size is one of the things it can refer to:

"what the noun refers to is bigger, more important, or more powerful", "what the noun refers 
to is smaller, less important, or less powerful"

(TKD 3.3.1)

However, I agree that these suffixes should not be used willy-nilly as replacements for {tIn} 
and {mach}.

For example, I would be comfortable calling a portable television a "TV"Hom, and the only 
essential difference is that it is small enough to carry.  However, I wouldn't be comfortable 
calling some other small TV a "TV"Hom, and again, the only essential difference is size.  
Perhaps the fact that it can be carried moves it into another semantic slot, so to speak.

This seems similar to the phenomenon of "mini-" in English.  Sometimes the size difference 
is enough to qualify for the "mini-" prefix, and sometimes it is not, and I would have no idea 
how to quantify the necessary difference (i.e., to explain to a non-native speaker).  I think the 
"small" meaning of {-Hom} has a partial overlap with English "mini-".

-Sangqar

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