tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Sep 03 14:13:42 1996
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Re: qep'a' highlights
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: qep'a' highlights
- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 17:13:07 -0400
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.)