>> My counter-argument would be that {-'a'} applies only to the
word {ngogh}, not the whole phrase, and the {Borg ngogh'a'}
certainly is remarkable by the standards of what usually
constitutes a {ngogh}. The only canon examples of it to date refer to pillows,
loaves of bread, chocolate and building bricks, and the Borg cube
beats all of them by a huge margin.
>That's how I read it, i.e., as {[Borg] [ngogh'a']} not {[Borg ngogh]['a']}.
Just be sure to be consistent so that later if they talk about a
Borg sphere, it's a {Borg moQ'a'} and not a mere {Borg moQ}.
While I agree that the -'a' mostly refers to the ngogh, I feel the
word "Borg" sets the context. "From the class of Borg-related
things, take a block"... ...and by the standards of this class,
this is not ngogh'a'; it's just a standard-issue ngogh.
I doubt there is such a thing as a universal measure for ngoghmey.
If that were the case, you'd have just three categories, which seems
rather poor. Rather, let there be ngoghHommey, ngoghmey motlh and
ngogh'a'mey for every category.
qeylIS betleH would probably be held as a betleH'a', but it's not
called qeylIS betleH'a'; it receives its grandeur from being
prefixed by "qeylIS". If you were to refer to qeylIS betleH'a', I'd
assume you were talking about the greatest of his many betleHmey.
Likewise, the telmey of a neghvar are perhaps tel'a'mey when
compared to the telDu' of a bird or even the telmey of a toQDuj, but
if you were to refer to neghvar tel'a'mey, the idea I'd get is "the
Negh'Var's main wings".
Consider also a pilllow might be called QongDaq buqHom (and a
sleeping bag a QongDaq buq'a'), and a pants pocket a yopwaH buq. To
me, this supports the idea that -'a' and -Hom are distinctions
within a category (most of the time, at least; in natural language,
I'd expect there to be plenty of exceptions).
_______________________________________________
Tlhingan-hol mailing list
[email protected]
http://stodi.digitalkingdom.org/mailman/listinfo/tlhingan-hol