tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 16 12:39:09 1998

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: pu' and past tense

---Anthony Appleyard  wrote:

>   ghItlh Robyn Stewart <[email protected]>:-
> > One reason this is so painful and frustrating to learn is that TKD
explains
> > it very superficially, and even misuses it *because Marc Okrand
changed his
> > mind about /-pu'/ part way through!  He was originally going to
make it a
> > past tense suffix, and some of the examples reflect that. ... the
one place
> > you SHOULD be able to go for examples is confusing. Marc has
explained this
> > in more detail in person.
> 
>   When will TKD be properly revised to remove all uses of -pu' as
simple past
> and explain properly the difference between aspect and tense???

Considering that addenda in the 2nd edition TKD couldn't even be
integrated with the first edition text, I'd say that it's not a
priority.  Besides, wouldn't you rather have a shiny new book full of
new informations than have the */egh/ */soH/ and /Hagh/ typos fixed?

> As long as the
> text of TKD stands like it is, beginners will keep on wanting to use
-pu' as
> simple past.
>   I suppose I could say: {pu'} also means "phaser", and guns in the
wrong
> place cause trouble! :-)

I think as long as beginners have native languages that have tense,
they will try to indicate tense on Klingon verbs with anything that
comes to hand.

Accept TKD as its foreward declares it to be: a preliminary work, and
enjoy the emerging research on the warrior's tongue.  I've just
started studying my first natural language without a long written
tradition, and even though there are native speakers and decades of
research, information about some constructions is as stilted as some
of the things we know about Klingon.  And the vocabulary deficiencies
are just as random.  Believe it: Klingon is an excellent simulation of
the early years of study of a natural language.  Only Klingon is a lot
easier.

==
Qov - Beginners' Grammarian 

_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Back to archive top level