Re: qep'a' highlights

[DTrimboli@aol.com]

96-09-02 21:51:42 EDT, jatlh charghwI':

> Members of a family ARE, but a family IS. In English, we'd say "Three 
>  ARE in the house," but we'd also say "Three IS the correct number." 
>  Three prisoners might be thought of in Klingon as "prisoners of the 
>  group of three", or "members of the group of three" such that, like the 
>  English word "family" if you remove the "members of", it becomes 
>  grammatically singular.

But I think what you're doing in your examples above is actually changing the
subject.  Perhaps the meaning is the same, but it is very different
grammatically.  In English, "a family" is a single thing: a single group.
 "Members" are just that, and the word is plural.  A "family" may be composed
entirely of "members," but they are not the same thing.

In both of your three examples, I think the "to be" verb is still being
modified by the removed subject noun.  "The number three" is singular.
 "Three prisoners" is plural.

I don't yet have an opinion on how to deal with this in Klingon, but the fact
that numbers are not nouns, and therefore probably aren't singular *or*
plural in any case, keeps me from accepting your suggestion straight off.

SuStel
Stardate 96674.0
(naDev paS ram.  choyajlaHbe'chugh QonglaHbe'ghachwIj yIpIch.)