jatlh SuStel

weq doesn't mean hit an object which just happens to be a percussion instrument, whether or not the hitting is intended to make music. If a car were to ram into a drum, that would not be weq, but it certainly would be a kind of hit.

If you're rhythmically slapping your knees, or even just once when timed for audible effect, that's weq. If you just happen to hit your knees once at random, that's not weq.

I agree with you totally on what type of action constitutes {weq}. But you're correcting me for something I didn't say. I just pointed out the assumptions implicit in your reasoning, namely (1) the disambiguator limits the object of {weq} to instruments, and (2) Klingons consider the knees to be instruments when used in a like manner to drums. These strike me as the sort of literal thinking that is so useful in computer science, and the second purports to know what Klingons would think. jaS jIQub. SorHa' tlhIngan net Sov. <qIvDu' weq> jatlhtaHvIS tlhIngan, chaq loQ SorHa'.

I'm not saying that KLINGONS consider knees slapped to make music to be percussion instruments, I'm telling you that they ARE percussion instruments. There's no cultural or subjective evaluation here.

jIjatlh

There's no evidence in Star Trek of Klingon lawns. Even among humans, it's something of a local fad. Klingons would probably find lawn-keeping to be bizarre behavior. In that case, they might well speak metaphorically (and mockingly) of giving the grass field a haircut.

jatlh SuStel

You're playing the "a Klingon would" game again.

Many humans and possibly all aliens would consider it bizarre behavior, but I did say "probably" and "might well." How much subjunctive padding do you require?

Infinite. Speculation on whether Klingons have lawns is one thing; speculation on Klingon grammar based on speculation about Klingon whether Klingons have lawns is quite another. Let's draw conclusions based on canon and linguistics, not our completely baseless estimate of Klingon horticultural interest. We know precisely two things: there is a grass-like Klingon plant called magh, and Klingons—or at least Maltz—have a phrase for a field of the stuff: magh yotlh.

Does magh grow as tall as grass? We don't know. Do Klingons ever cultivate it for any reason whatsoever? We don't know. Do Klingons ever have to maintain it or remove it? We don't know. Do Klingons have opinions about all the lawns they've seen on Human planets or in pictures? We don't know.

So to declare that Klingons "probably" find the idea of lawn maintenance bizarre is based on a whole lot of we-don't-knows, as is the idea of using the verb for barbering to refer to cutting magh short.

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SuStel
http://trimboli.name