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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/1/2022 8:38 AM, D qunen'oS wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAP7F2cJKNZJ0Pmj5rFE_Wp_uS1NEZ2ieMhpQmCSdgU_1-EZGwA@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="auto">Suppose I'm telling the following story.</div>
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<div dir="auto">There's a captain whose crew is incompetent.
They have the targets in the screens in front of them, but
they still can't see them. So the captain says:</div>
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<div dir="auto">"Idiots.. They can't see the targets, even when
the screens display them.."</div>
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<div dir="auto">Which of the two should I write?</div>
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<div dir="auto">QIpwI'pu'; ray' luleghlaHbe', vabDot
lu'aghtaHvIS jIH.</div>
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<div dir="auto">QIpwI'pu'; ray' luleghlaHbe', vabDot 'aghtaHvIS
jIHmey.</div>
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<div dir="auto">So I guess the question is this:</div>
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<div dir="auto">When at a point of a passage an inherently
plural noun has been stated, but in the subsequent story this
noun is omitted (elided I think is the term), do we treat the
thing described as singular or do we treat it as plural?</div>
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<div dir="auto">Is the inherently plural noun treated as
singular only when it is written, or are the things described
by that noun to be considered as something singular for the
duration of the remaining story, even when the inherently
plural noun which describes them is omitted/elided?</div>
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<p><b>ray'</b> is an <b>'oH, </b>not a <b>bIH.</b> You can
substitute pronouns for nouns, and you can elide pronouns. So when
you say <b>ray' luleghlaHbe'; vabDot lu'aghtaHvIS jIH,</b> the
elided word between <b>vabDot</b> and <b>lu'aghtaHvIS</b> is <b>'oH.</b>
There is no point at which you stop thinking of the entity as
singular.<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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