tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 17 11:22:08 1996
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Re: Dr Okrand Speaks -- ben
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dr Okrand Speaks -- ben
- Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 14:22:05 -0500 (EST)
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]> (message fromIrene Gates on Tue, 17 Dec 1996 11:13:38 -0800)
>Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 11:13:38 -0800
>From: Irene Gates <[email protected]>
>
>
>*** From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email protected]> ***
Good to hear that Ivan's still got his ear to this list from time to time!
>> From: Steven Boozer, INTERNET:[email protected]
>> RE: Re: Dr Okrand Speaks -- ben
>>
>> >> "I am 40 years old" would be expressed as: loSmaH ben jIboghpu'
>>
>> Seems perfectly logical to me. How many times can you be born? This one
>> event is completed. The alternative is to leave it in the unmarked
>> imperfect which to my ears implies your birth took 40 years to accomplish.
>
>Wait, is the unmarked form necessarily imperfective? I thought it was
>neutral (and could be interpreted as having any aspectual quality). Now
>{40 ben jIboghtaH} is imperfective, and I understand it as meaning
>`(on a fine morning) 40 years ago I was being born (and suddenly ...)'.
Yes, good point. Perfectiveless Klingon verbs are not necessarily
imperfective, just unmarked.
~mark