tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Aug 20 12:30:53 2002

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Re: qul/Hoch



>  > >reH latlh qabDaq qul tuj law' Hoch tuj puS.
>>
>>  maybe i have already asked this... but this sentence seems strange to
>>  me. i read it as "always - on someone else's face - fire is the
>>  hottest". i think i can decompose the sentence this way and analise
>>  only the end: /qul tuj law' Hoch tuj puS/. it means "fire is the
>>  hottest", which means that there is nothing hotter than fire. do you
>>  know i mean? the whole sentence means "there is nothing hotter than
>>  fire on someone elses face", which implies that on the own face there
>>  can be something hotter than fire. this is not the meaning of the
>>  translation "the fire is always hotter on someone else's face".
>
>I understand what you're saying, and I agree.
>
>Apparently the /Hoch/ is greatly shortened from
>... Hoch qabDaq qul ...

...

hm.

>But even then I am a little confused.  The fire is hotter on someone else's
>face, as opposed to.. my face, your face?  With either of these, why would
>we use the word Hoch?  Plus, would the fire feel the hottest when it's on
>your own face?

the fire is hottest on someone else's face, it's not "hotter" but 
"hottest". there are at least two ways of interpretation:

1. there is nothing hotter than _fire_
2. there is nothing hotter than _the fire on someone else's face_

in the first case it seems that the locative noun-phrase /latlh 
qabDaq/ describes the whole rest of the sentence. in this case, you 
couldn't find anything hotter than fire, when you look at someone 
else's face.
in the second case /latlh qabDaq qul/ must be a noun-phrase. it's 
"the fire on someone else's face". i think the latter interpretation 
is better.

can this be correct?

>I just use the other phrases available.

in order to describe comparison and superlative?

tulwI',
sts.


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