tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 15 08:11:44 1996
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Re: KLBC:taHvIS
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>Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 06:24:04 -0700
>From: "Rob. [nuqHm] Newcombe" <[email protected]>
>I have just been working through David Barron's excellent postal course [no charge for the
>plug !] and in lesson 5 ...
> maQochtaHvIS
>is translated as "while we were disagreeing"
>wouldn't "while we disagree" be a better translation ?
>-taH implies that the action is ongoing.
>It seems impossible to say "while we were disagreeing" using this type of construction as
>you would need -pu' to indicate that the action is over, but -vIS requires -taH, another vsx7 !
>Comments please
There's no problem here; you're just confusing tense with aspect.
Klingon does NOT have marking for tense on its verbs. It doesn't.
Really. "jI'oj" means "I am thirsty"; it ALSO means "I was thirsty" and "I
will be thirsty." Listen to CK if you don't believe me. Tense is
distinguished by context. -pu' and -taH indicate *aspect*, which is the
state of completion of the action at the time under discussion (which is
determined by context). I wrote an article about this in an issue of
HolQeD a while back.
So {maQochtaHvIS} means "during some time in which disagreement exists
among us"... whether that time be in the past, present, or future. I could
say, "wa'Hu' maQochtaHvIS, pa' 'el HoD": while we were disagreeing
yesterday, the captain entered the room. Replace "wa'Hu'" with "wa'leS"
and the sentence is about tomorrow, and in English would have to be recast
in future tense. But not in Klingon, since Klingon HAS NO TENSE-MARKING.
Suffixes like -pu' indicate aspect. That is, relative to the time under
consideration (the "tense", which is not explicitly marked in Klingon), was
the action ongoing, completed, or what? "jI'ojpu'" doesn't mean "I was
thirsty"; it's more like "I have been thirsty" OR "I had been thirsty" or
even "I will be thirsty." That's right: you can use -pu' for actions in
the future: loSleS ghunchu'wI' vIqIHpu': four days in the future, I *will
have met* ghunchu'wI' for the first time. At the time under discussion
(this Friday) the action is completed and done. It's still in future from
where I stand now, but that doesn't enter into it. -pu' marks aspect, not
tense.
This helping?
~mark
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