I agree. {targhHom} is NEVER just a "small targ", that would be {targh mach}. A {targhHom} is a creature like a targ, but less like a targ than a targ normally is. A {DujHom} isn't just a small ship, it's a different kind of ship.
I think the accepted usage of -Hom and -'a' by some Klingonists is stricter than what's implied by canon. While -Hom can connote a different sort of thing from the noun without -Hom, this isn't always the case. In some cases, a noun with -Hom refers to something that is presumably the same class as the noun without -Hom. A bo'DaghHom is just a
This is always the case. My statement wasn't that {-Hom} always creates some new, seperate, concept, it's that {-Hom} never means just "small" by itself. There has to be more to it.
small scoop, for instance, not an entirely
different utensil. A SuSHom is a less intense SuS, rather than some distinct weather phenomenon that's not quite the same as a volume of moving air in the sky. A naQHom is just a small stick. In
A {bo'DaghHom} could be a "serving spoon" instead of a just a small ladle-like scoop, or it might be a specific Klingon utensil we don't know about get. A {SuSHom} is a "breeze", which some may say is different from "wind". A {naQHom} is a "twig", not a just "small stick".
Sometimes a lesser thing ends up just being the same thing, only smaller. A lesser rock is still a rock.
Okrand's phrasing here suggests that while -Hom can mean "not quite an X", it can also mean "lesser X", something that is still an X but in some lesser way. In other words, there's no specific category distinction. targhHom could mean "not quite a targ" (some kind of similar, but different, species), but also "lesser targ" (a targ that is in some way lesser than other targs but still nonetheless a targ.)
The term "creature" in my statement above includes targs. My statement was supposed to be general enough to cover both situations you described.
qurgh