tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 26 04:41:54 1996
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Re: KLBC -- tense
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: KLBC -- tense
- Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 07:58:36 -0600
K'Daq writes:
> How do you expressa simple concept like - It was night. ?
As a "concept", we have the noun {ram} "night". If all you want to
say is "night happened" you can say {qaS ram}. If you're going to be
describing the night, it might be something like {Hurgh 'ej jev ram}.
If you want to say that something happend "at night", treat {ram} as
a time word and just put it at the beginning: {ram jIQong}
> I understand the use of (or hope I do<G>) pronouns to be used as verbs. But
>how do you express tense in a short sentence when there is not enough other
>info to give you that clue?
To show past/present/future, you add information to clue in the reader.
> ie how do you express the difference between -
>
> It IS night. It WAS night.
Usually, the distinction isn't really that important. It's only because
you're used to explicit tense in English that you're even asking about it.
If you absolutely have to express tense, be specific, and indicate *when*
it was night. For instance, {wa'Hu' qaS ram} "yesterday, night happened."
Depending on the precise shade of meaning you want, you can add aspect
suffixes to say {wa'Hu' qaStaH ram} "night was happening yesterday" or
{wa'Hu' qaSlI' ram} "night was progressing yesterday". You can also say
{wa'Hu' qaSpu' ram} "night had happened yesterday", but the true meaning
of this phrase is something like "At a certain time (yesterday), night
was not occurring, but it had occurred before that time and was finished."
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj