tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 10 09:45:03 1996
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Re: jI'It
- From: "Mark J. Reed" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: jI'It
- Date: Wed, 10 Apr 96 12:44:58 EDT
- In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 10 Apr 1996 08:44:51 -0700. <winATT-2.7.1-kcrissey-686>
[email protected] (kcrissey) writes:
\ >Once more, I must question this use of the perfective suffix {-pu'}.
\ >Do you mean that as of yesterday the book had arrived, or that the
\ >book actually arrived yesterday?
\
\ At the time of that writing, the book had actually arrived yesterday.
But the time of the sentence is not the time of the writing. The
"yesterday" fixes the time of the sentence, so it is relative to
yesterday that the verb aspect must be determined.
{wa'Hu' paw paq} Yesterday, the book arrived.
{wa'Hu' pawpu' paq} Yesterday, the book had arrived.
In the second case, the book could have arrived the day before
yesterday, or a week ago, or a month ago; the sentence only says that
by the time period under discussion, the act of the book's arrival is
complete. It makes no statement as to when the actual completion took
place.
--
Mark J. Reed
Email: [email protected] - Voice: +1 404 315 6296 x158 - Fax: +1 404 315 6407
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