[tlhIngan Hol] Expressing "some of"

[SuStel]

On 11/29/2018 9:27 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
> SuStel:
>> I think the difference is that paq'batlh is talking about the quantity of Klingons,
>> while you are using a number of as a synonym for some. A number of is English idiom,
>> and you're trying to literally translate the idiom. What paq'batlh translates is not an idiom but literal.
> ok, don't misunderstand me; I'm not trying to argue. I'm genuinely
> trying to understand..
>
> The original sentence was:
> {tugh, Hargh SuvwI'pu'vam mI'}
> soon, a number of these warriors will fight
>
> When I wrote this sentence, I had in mind "soon, some (i.e. an unknown
> quantity) of these warriors will fight".
>
> I just can't see the difference between my sentence, and the paq'batlh
> one; is the difference that the paq'batlh sentence specifies the
> quantity, by saying "an equal number" ?
>
> Anyway, I'm not trying to say that my original sentence is correct; in
> fact in the first message of this thread, I wrote "I feel that they
> are wrong, but I can't understand why".
>
> And I'm perfectly happy to be writing {'op SuvwI'vam} or {'op
> SuvwI'pu'vam} for "some of these warriors".
>
> But I just can't see, how the paq'batlh sentence and the one I wrote,
> are actually any different.

*mI'* doesn't mean /an unknown number./ It means /number./

In the /paq'batlh/ sentence, *lutlhej tlhInganpu' Hem mI' nIb,* the key 
difference is the presence of *nIb.* Without it, the sentence means /the 
number of proud Klingons accompany him/ — whatever that means. You're 
not saying /some/ in any way.

If you wanted to say /an unknown number,/ and you didn't want to use 
*'op* for some reason, you could say *tugh Hargh SuvwI'pu'vam mI' 
Sovbe'lu'bogh*/Soon an unknown number of these warriors will fight a 
major fight./ But that sounds to me like you're making a point that you 
don't know how many warriors there will be, rather than just being vague 
about their numbers.


-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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