tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 02 12:52:36 1995
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: "too many"
On Mon, 1 May 1995 14:03:50 -0400, "William H. Martin" <[email protected]> said:
> According to Alan Anderson:
>>
>> jabbI'IDmey vIHevbogh law' law' yapbogh jabbI'ID law' puS
>>
>> Does this express the concept that I have received too many messages?
> How about:
> jabbI'IDmey yapqu' vIHev.
It is not impossible to interpret this literally as `quite enough',
`exactly the right amount', which is certainly fewer than `too many'.
> One of the odd vaguaries in Klingon is the lack of distinguishing
> suffixes to delineate between "very" and "too" as a measure of degree.
> I mean, if I translate, "I am very hot," I get {jItujqu'}.
> If I translate, "I am too hot," I get {jItujqu'}.
Many Terran languages don't distinguish between these two concepts;
Hindi comes to mind. In either case it is true that you're very hot.
In the second case you perceive that as a problem or inconvenience,
but that will often be made sufficiently clear by the context, or
by something else you'll say.
My (Hindi-influenced) .02 DeQ:
jabbI'ID(mey) law'qu' vIHev. (lit. `I received very many messages.')
> Looking at a verb like {yap}, to make it "very"
> is not very useful compared to making it "too".
True, but making `very enough' mean `too much/many' is a hack.
Many expressions are not useful at all as they stand, but that
doesn't mean that they may be assigned meanings freely.
I like the variant ghunchu'wI' proposed (`too many/much' is precisely
`more than enough', after all), though the {law' law'} part does look
awkward, even if it is formally correct. Yet it will be needed
in other cases; how to say `There are more tribbles than targs'
without {law' law'}?
--'Iwvan