[tlhIngan Hol] law' puS construction with law'

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Wed Oct 11 09:10:57 PDT 2017


On 10/11/2017 11:56 AM, Lieven wrote:
> Am 11.10.2017 um 17:50 schrieb SuStel:
>> but here we're not expected to think of this as /many (different) 
>> electricities./ I don't think *Do law'* would automatically mean 
>> /many (different) velocities/ just by that logical alone.
>
> I don't have canon examples at hand, but I'm sure that {law'} is not 
> only "many" but also "much" (bIQ law' - "a lot of water", not "many 
> waters"). So with noncountable things like {'ul law'} I don't read it 
> as "many electricities", but "much electricity".

I looked a bit for *law'* on uncountable nouns, but *'ul* was the only 
one I found.

I don't see how you distinguish between *'ul* being uncountable and *Do* 
being countable. Surely you can measure electrical charge as well as you 
can measure velocity, and you can have different measurements of 
electrical charge as you can have different measurements of velocity. 
Grammatically, I see absolutely no difference between these two words.


>> Now that we have *vItlh,* that's obviously the better choice for 
>> things like this. But you can't completely rule out using *law'.*
>
> I think one can use this to distinguish between "a lot of speed, very 
> fast {Do law'} and "a high amount of speed measured in numbers" {Do 
> vItlh}. 

I don't see the difference here, either. Using *vItlh* doesn't relate 
your sentence to numbers; you're just saying, /that's a lot./ Which is 
what *law'* is saying with *'ul law'.*

I think the difference, which I just suggested in another message, is 
that *vItlh* is more general than *law'**. law' *is only about quantity, 
while *vItlh* is about quantity or size or intensity or whatever it is 
by which you measure a thing. If you measure a big quantity, either 
*law' *or *vItlh* will do, though *vItlh *assumes the listener knows 
you're talking about quantity; if you measure a big size, either *tIn 
*or *vItlh* will do, though *vItlh *assumes the listener knows you're 
talking about size; if you measure a big strength, either *HoS* or 
*vItlh* will do, though *vItlh *assumes the listener knows you're 
talking about strength; and so on.

    /The energy field is strong.
    /*HoS HoSchem
    vItlh HoSchem*
    (Both say exactly the same thing. But you wouldn't say *law'
    HoSchem* for that meaning, and you wouldn't interpret *vItlh
    HoSchem* as /there are many energy fields, /because energy fields
    are usually measured by their strengths/./)

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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