tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 19 09:50:29 1994
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Re: Aspect and "be"
According to [email protected]:
>
>
> How would you say "I was in the room." ?
>
> hypothetical ---> pa'Daq jIH.
>
> Would this work, or is an aspect suffix necessary? I know that in many
> instances you can render the "past" (in English) with simply just the verb
> conjugated.
>
> William
wa'Hu' pa'Daq jIHtaH
The {-taH} is optional. The point is that to say {pa'Daq
jIHpu'} would imply that I had been in the room, but was no
longer in it. The act of being in the room would be complete
(as in ended). Tense is solely determined by context. Aspect
has more to do with degree of completion within the tense
context of the sentence.
charghwI'