<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>On Sep 6, 2017, at 3:19 PM, Brent Kesler <<a href="mailto:brent.of.all.people@gmail.com">brent.of.all.people@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>Like I said, I don't have the full context of paq'batlh available to me, but we can do a simple experiment:</div><div><ol><li>Take one of the canon {ngIq} sentences.<br></li><li>Come up with some context to make it obvious that {ngIq} means "all of them, one by one".<br></li><li>Come up with some different context to make it obvious that {ngIq} means "just one thing out of a collection of things".</li></ol></div></div></blockquote><div>nIteb chegh molor ngIq ghoqwI'</div><div><br></div><div>By itself, it is ambiguous. Such is often the case with sentences plucked from their surroundings.</div><div><br></div><div>The context in the paq'batlh is that of multiple scouts:</div><div><br></div><div> joqwI''e' cha'bogh qeylIS luDel 'e' ra' molor</div><div> "He asks them which banner Kahless marches under."</div><div><br></div><div>Even if you didn't know that several got sent earlier, {lu-} in {luDel} makes it clear that Molor's scouts are not a single person. Obviously it was more than one scout returning, each alone:</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> nIteb chegh molor ngIq ghoqwI'</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> "One by one Molor's scouts return."</span></div><div><br></div><div>Consider if the context were instead something like this:</div><div><br></div><div> Heghpu' HochHom ghoqwI'. ratlh wa' neH. ghaH po' law' Hoch ghaH puS.</div><div> "All the scouts are dead save one, the most skilled of all."</div><div><br></div><div>That would make it explicit that only the single scout made it back:</div><div><br></div><div> nIteb chegh molor ngIq ghoqwI'</div><div> "Molor's sole scout returns alone."</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><div><div>I say that's impossible, unless the context pretty much defines {ngIq} for you.</div></div></div></blockquote><br><div>You did ask for that context, so you don't have a reason to complain if it is provided.</div><div><br></div><div>-- ghunchu'wI'</div><div><br></div></body></html>