tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 20 19:56:42 1997

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Re: Hoch, HochHom, bID, 'op



On Wed, 20 Aug 1997 12:05:08 -0700 (PDT)  "Mark E. Shoulson" 
<[email protected]> wrote:


> >Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 08:06:34 -0700 (PDT)
> >From: "Neal Schermerhorn" <[email protected]>
> >
> >>> Which is correct?
> >>> cha' wISop
> >>> cha' DISop
> >
> >cha' here is the word two - but we don't yet know if cha', acting as a
> >noun, is inherently singular or plural. So to say "We eat two", one of
> >these is right, but we have no idea which yet.
> 
> p.54 of TKD seems to imply it should be {cha' DISop}.
> 
> ~mark

While I would LIKE to use {cha' DISop}, page 54 gives me no 
certainty of this. The examples are:

mulegh cha' - where the prefix tells us nothing because either a 
plural or singular third person subject gives us {mu-}.

wa' yIHoH - where the prefix tells us nothing because the object 
is singular.

So, why does this indicate to you that a number greater than one 
used as a noun does not follow the rule that inherantly plural 
nouns are treated grammatically as singular? It is a conclusion 
I'd like to see proved because I like it, but so far I have 
found no such proof.

charghwI'





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