[tlhIngan Hol] When better is missing go with preferable

[Lieven]

Am 19.08.2016 um 08:52 schrieb mayqel qunenoS:
> I was trying to find a way to express "better" by using a single word
> ; not through the use of suffixes and context, or the {law'/puS}
> construction.
>
> for example "my phone is better" ; not "my phone is better than yours".

Well, then your problem is not the word "better" but any superlative.

There never is a single word (AFAIK) "larger", "smarter", etc.
All of these have to be expressed using the law'/puS.

If we go into detail, chapter TKD 6.6 has skipped the "one is x-er" 
expression, only giving examples for "A is x-er than B" (comparing TWO 
things) and then "A is the x-est of all".
What it does explicitely say,  is that that "the verb of quality must be 
said twice".

By the way, you only happen to be fortunate having the verb {qaq} 
working in your question, but it's still not the same as "better". Maybe 
one thing is sureley better than another, but I may prefer the worse anyway.

The word "better" in the translations of "it is better to die 
standing..." is confusing and not correct, as it is only a person's 
opinion: General Chang "prefers" to die fighting.

PS: since {qaq} was introduced in the addendum of TKD, I suppose it was 
the actor's mispronunciation of {QaQ}.


-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
Grammarian of the KLI
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