tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Apr 11 10:44:20 1996
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Re: KLBC: jabbI'IDwIj wa'DIch
According to [email protected]:
>
> In a message dated 96-04-10 10:42:58 EDT, you write:
>
> >You can use a number as a noun, but the only canon we have for
> >that is for numbers uses as quantity, not as a label. "How many
> >dilithium crystals do you want?" "I want four." "What room are
> >you staying in?" "I'm staying in room four." It would not be
> >okay to say, "I'm staying in four." That would indicate that I
> >was staying in four rooms, not room number four.
>
> You forget TKD page 54, which says numbers may be used exactly in this way!
I most decidedly did NOT forget, and if you'll read page 54
again you'll see that my examples are perfectly correct. You
can use a number as a noun when it represents a quantity, as in
my example "I want four," meaning, "I want four crystals,"
similar to Okrand's example {mulegh cha'} "Two (of them) see
me," or "{wa' yIHoH} "Kill one (of them)!"
He was not saying, "Person two sees me," or "Kill person one."
Not only is there no example showing what I consider an illegal
use of numbers ("I'm staying in four,") but if this use WERE
legal, then his example {wa' yIHoH} could be interpreted as
"Kill person number one." If you remember the scene from the
movie this was taken from this is significant, since the whole
line was {wa' yIHoH. jISaHbe',} which was subtitled as "Kill
one of them. I don't care which one."
This line is significant in that Okrand sidestepped
illustrating how to express the question word "which", as in
"Which one do you want me to kill?" It also specifically cannot
mean that the one to be killed is person number one because
Kruge obviously does not want to deal with that decision.
Anyway, I don't mind being corrected when I'm wrong, but this
time, jIlughchu' 'ej jIqarchu'!
> SuStel
> Hovjaj 96276.1
>
charghwI'
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