[1728] in tlhIngan-Hol
More on Greater Than/Less Than
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Oct 18 11:51:46 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com>
From: Paul J. Clegg <cleggp@rpi.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 11:46:47 -0400
Hmm... Ya know, I've been thinking about this little problem...
Looking at the exact definition of law', law' means "to be many". It doesn't
mean "to be greater", which it is used for in the TKD 6.6. In TKD 6.6,
the example is:
la' jaq law' yaS jaq puS The commander is bolder than the officer.
How does this structure compare to the other structures presented in TKD?
It doesn't, really, except for the fact that you might be able to argue that
"law'" and "puS" might be acting as adjectives. Literally, the Klingon way
of saying greater than/less than (oh no! Semantics!) could be almost like
Tarzan -- "Commander very bold; officer little bold" "Me Tarzan, You Jane".
Just by stating the two quantities, one picks up (from context?) the indicated
meaning.
So, by this logic, could we also say:
yaS jaq puS la' jaq law' The officer is less bold than the commander.
Or maybe even:
'ejyo'waw' Qaw'ta' la' jaq law' The bolder commander destroyed the starbase.
Basically, simplifying the greater/less structure into simply a statement
of two quantities. "law'" and "puS" become adjectives of adjectives; they
modify the state that an adjective employs, in a way similar to Hom and 'a'
are as noun suffixes.
tuQoch'a'? tuQochbe''a'?
...Paul
PS> If you haven't guessed, I personally prefer the theory that "Qoch"
can take an object, which denotes who is being disagreed with... :)
