tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 23 04:01:15 2006
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Re: paSlogh (was Re: yopwaH)
- From: "QeS 'utlh" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: paSlogh (was Re: yopwaH)
- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:00:59 +1000
- Bcc:
jIghItlhpu', jIja':
>In Klingon, there's not one attested instance of a noun that is
>treated as grammatically plural although it's semantically singular. In
>fact, the opposite situation is the one we find: semantically plural nouns
>such as {ngop} "plates" are treated as grammatically singular, not plural.
>For this reason, I still think that {yopwaH} is not a grammatically (or
>semantically) plural noun, and that {yopwaHDaj 'oH yopwaHvam'e'} "these
>pants are his pants" is the correct form, not *{yopwaHDaj bIH
>yopwaHvam'e'}.
jangpu' Philip, ja':
>Hmm... what's the situation with {paSlogh}, then, I wonder?
>Would it be correct to view it as an inherently plural noun which
>takes singular concord (like {ngop})? For example, {paSloghwIj lunej;
>nuqDaq 'oH?} "They are looking for my socks; where are they?" rather
>than {paSloghwIj nej; nuqDaq bIH?}?
As a guess, yes, I would think so. However, the situation is complicated
slightly by the fact that a pair of socks *is* actually two articles of
clothing... {{:) The fact is that if {paSlogh} did actually take plural verb
and pronoun forms without being able to take pluralising noun suffixes, it
would be a unique case and would probably have been mentioned somewhere in
the text of TKD.
>I suppose that would make sock/socks another pair of nouns with a
>suppletive plural form -- a pair of which we happen not to know the
>singular form.
Probably since one usually hears about socks in the plural. (Unless Klingons
have washing machines, that is: "the washing machine ate my sock again"...)
>Is that about right, based on what we know?
It sounds quite reasonable to me.
QeS 'utlh
tlhIngan Hol yejHaD pabpo' / Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute
not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
- Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh
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