tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Apr 11 08:03:07 1996
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Re: jI'It
According to Alan Anderson:
>
> jeHwI' writes:
> >>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.
>
> wejpuH. This isn't *either* of the meanings I expected, and it doesn't
> help to pin down what really happened. "Had arrived" says the arrival
> was already finished at the time in question, and the time in question
> is "yesterday" in your sentence. I must conclude that either the book
> arrived sometime before yesterday, or you don't completely understand
> "perfective" in either Klingon *or* English.
>
> It appears that you translated "the book had arrived yesterday" correctly.
> However, even in English this is hard to understand. My question remains:
> Did you mean that the book arrived *while* yesterday occurred, or did you
> mean that it had *already* arrived when yesterday occurred?
wa'Hu' paw paq.
wa'Hu' pawpu' paq.
qaSchoHDI' wa'Hu' paw paq.
qaSlI'DI' wa'Hu' pawpu' paq.
qaSpu'DI' wa'Hu' pawpu' paq.
I think you are fixating on an extreme, pure interpretation of
{-pu'} as perfective. It is different from the simple past
tense, but in this instance, it does not have to indicate that
the arrival of the book must have occurred before yesterday
started. It can mean that the book arrived while the writer was
at work and when he got home yesterday, the book HAD arrived.
The event of the completion of the arrival occured during the
day, and since it happened when he wasn't there, it fits that
he could use the perfective to refer to it.
I personally would not use the perfective if I was there when
it arrived and I signed for it, or I would use the perfective
if I got home and saw that it had arrived while I was away,
since I have proof that it HAD arrived, but I don't have proof
that it arrived during the day. Maybe it had arrived day before
yesterday and I just didn't notice until yesterday. I can't be
sure. But I CAN be sure that it HAD arrived yesterday.
> -- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj
charghwI'
--
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