[tlhIngan Hol] HochHom in noun-noun constructions

[SuStel]

On 2/4/2021 8:14 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> There are ten pies. An alien walks in and starts eating. When he's 
> finished, someone comments by saying "he ate almost each pie".
>
> What does this mean? That, lets say, initially there were 10 pies, and 
> now there only two whole pies left? Or that the alien in question, ate 
> a portion from each one of the ten pies, and in result we now have the 
> leftovers from each one of the ten initial pies?

No native English speaker would say that. If there were only two out of 
ten pies less, a native English speaker would say /He ate most of the 
pies/ or /He at almost all of the pies./ If he were trying to express 
the latter idea, that the majority of each pie was eaten, leaving ten 
separate leftovers, the native English speaker wouldn't say it this way 
at all. There's no simple expression for this; you'd have to say 
something like /He ate most of each of the pies,/ and even then your 
listener would probably ask for clarification because the concept is so 
odd that your meaning would still be in question.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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