[tlhIngan Hol] bID in noun-noun constructions

[De'vID]

On Tue, 12 May 2020 at 15:15, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:

> SuStel:
> > pawpu' poH luSopbogh nov. ghIq wa' vI'
> > vagh DIS luSoppu'.
>
> I've thought of this solution, but the thing I can't understand, is why
> {bID} is used as the second noun in {paH bID} etc, while at the "half
> utility deck" its' use is seemingly/apparently weird.
>

{bID yIH(mey)} "half of the tribbles"
{yIH{mey} bID} "the tribbles' halves"

{SuD bID yIHmey} "half of the tribbles are green" (there are an equal
number of {SuD} and {Doq} tribbles)
{SuD yIHmey bID} "the tribbles' halves are green" (each tribble is {SuD} on
one side and {Doq} on the other)

In a noun-noun construction, the result's type is that of the second noun.
Is a {moQbID} a {moQ}? No. Is it a {bID}. Yes, a {bID} of a {moQ}.

A {yopwaH bID} is not quite a {yopwaH}. A {paH bID} is not quite a {paH}.
(There's something which initially looks like an exception in {DIr bID}
which, if it literally referred to half of a skin, is still a skin, but the
explanation here is that it's actually a shortened form fo {DIr paH bID}. A
{DIr paH} is a {paH}, and a short version of that isn't a {paH} but a {paH
bID}, specifically a {DIr paH bID}, which is sometimes shortened to {DIr
bID} when the context is clear.)

A {bID choQ} is still a {choQ}. A half-deck is, in fact, just half of a
deck. Its type is still deck. I would expect {choQ bID} to be something
which is functionally not the same as a {choQ}.

With {moQ} it's fairly unambiguous that halving it results in something
that's not a {moQ}. With {choQ}, assuming you start with a reasonably-sized
one, halving it still results in a {choQ} and you're at the other end of
the spectrum. Items of clothing are in between and it's ambiguous or
debatable which way they could've gone: how short does a "dress" have to be
before it becomes a "skirt"? At least for a sufficiently short one,
Klingons apparently no longer see it as a dress but as a half-dress (which
is not a dress in the way that a hemisphere is not a sphere).

-- 
De'vID
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