tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 27 21:17:03 2014

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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] puS

lojmIt tI'wI' nuv 'utlh ([email protected])



<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Consider that the threshold in Klingon between {law’} and {puS} can be between several and many, instead of your arbitrary choice to declare the proper threshold to be between a few and several.</div><div><br></div><div>After all, Klingons consider yellow to be a color associated with blue and green (a really light shade of green) instead of red and orange (a really light shade of orange). It’s arbitrary where these thresholds sit that mark a difference between vaguely differentiated descriptions. Accept the definition instead of bending it to your arbitrary choice.</div><div><br></div><div>When I read the definition, I see {puS} = “not a lot” and {law’} = “a lot”.</div><div><br></div><div>All of this is vague, when most of the time the MAIN thing we are marking here is that {law’} is more than {puS}. Also that {law’} is noteworthy because it is a lot, and {puS} is noteworthy because it is not all that many. If the number is not noteworthy… if it were merely the usual, expected number of something, then we probably wouldn’t use either word.</div><div><br></div><div>When one might expect X under typical conditions, but one observes a number clearly less than X, the word {puS} comes to mind. When one encounters noticeably more than X, then the word {law’} comes to mind. There is no single number X to measure this word choice by. If there were, then it would be in the definition.</div><br><div>
<div><div>lojmIt tI’wI’ nuv ‘utlh</div><div>Door Repair Guy, Retired Honorably</div></div><div><br></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On Jun 27, 2014, at 11:02 PM, Brad Wilson &lt;<a href="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><font size="2" face="arial">The definition for {puS} in TKD has always bothered me -&nbsp;<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">be few, be several, be a handful.</span>
<div><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To me a handful is a few, but several is more than that. I wouldn't put these together in meaning.</span></div>

<div><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I usually just ignore the "several" entry and use {law'} instead for several/many.</span></div>

<div><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How do others reconcile this?</span></div>

<div><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br>
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<div><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">gheyIl</span></div>
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