[tlhIngan Hol] Using {'ar} without a noun

[SuStel]

On 8/22/2018 9:37 AM, David Holt wrote:
> The Klingon dictionary is clear that numbers "may stand alone as 
> subjects or objects or they may modify another noun." It is an easy 
> logical leap to treat {'ar} in the same way, but {'ar} is not a type 
> of number and so that may not be allowed.  TKD says only that {'ar} 
> "follows the noun to which it refers." Does anyone know if any canon 
> which uses {'ar} as a stand alone subject or object? What do you think 
> of that use of it and particularly if teaching that use of it?

The sentence that raised this question, by the way, is *'ar bo'ab,* 
meant to mean /How tall are you?/

I would point out that only *'Iv* and *nuq* (and, by extension of 
suffix, *nuqDaq*) act like pronouns, substituting for the answer. *'ar 
*does not substitute itself for a number. This is clear not only because 
*'ar* comes after the noun, not before, and constrains its use of a 
plural suffix, but because *'ar* can be used on mass nouns where numbers 
cannot. You can ask *nIn 'ar wIghaj*/How much fuel do we have?/ but you 
cannot say *vagh nIn wIghaj */We have five fuels./

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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