tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 04 19:04:41 1996

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RE: KLBC: Re: Hamlet

December 03, 1996 3:50 PM, jatlh 'olIva':

> > > rIntaH.
> > 
> > What is finished?
> 
> *Hamlet* vIje' rIntaH.
> I have purchased "Hamlet". (As on TKD p.41.)
> "It remains accomplished... it is done, and it cannot be undone."
> 
> OK, so it didn't make much sense following on from the "<credit-card>
> DaghajnIS" bit. Maybe I should have put it after the bit about going to
> the KLI page with someone's credit card SHARPISH!! Would it have made
> sense then?

You've used it correctly now.  {rIntaH} is just a more obvious and forceful 
way to say {-ta'}, and must come after the verb you're saying is completed and 
undo-able.  It cannot stand on its own as a grammatical marker, although it is 
a verb in its own right.  As a verb, it functions very differently than it 
does as an aspect marker.

> > > SoS *credit card* vIlo'ta'. chaw'.
> > > I used my mother's credit card. She permitted it.
> > 
> > Is there a reason you used {-ta'} on {lo'}?  Your translation doesn't shed 
any 
> > light on this.
> 
> TKD p.41: "This suffix is used when an activity was deliberately
> undertaken, the implication being that someone set out to do something and
> in fact did it."
> 
> Well, I set out to order "Hamlet" from the KLI's website, and in fact did
> it. Isn't that right? OK, I suppose it wasn't necessary, but was it
> actually incorrect?

What I mean is, why did you use an aspect marker at all?  Somehow, it made 
more sense to me without it.  {SoSwI' *credit card* vIlo'.  chaw'.}  "I used 
my mother's credit card.  She permitted it."  WITH the suffix, it means "I had 
used my mother's credit card.  She permitted it."

Still, what you said was not wrong.  I'm just not sure it jibes with the rest 
of the message.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 96928.1

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