tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 14 13:16:48 1997
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Re: KLBC: Questions with -'e'-
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: Questions with -'e'-
- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 13:16:37 -0700
At 13:30 97-10-12 -0700, Dawut wrote:
}Sun, 12 Oct 1997 Qov transmitted:
}
}>Uh uh uh uh. Type seven suffixes do NOT denote tense. If something
}took
}>place in the past and it is important that the reader understand it
}took
}>place in the past, say when it happened. The action with a {-pu'} on
}it
}>took place no longer ago than the one without. Klingon simply does not
}have
}>past tense. Deal.
}>
}>
}>Tense (which Klingon doesn't have) refers to the completion or
}ongoingness
}>of an action at the time the sentence is told. Aspect refers to the
}>completion or ongoingness in the context of the sentence.
}>
}
}yaj. That's what I was trying to convey. The aspect of completion in
}regards to the officer's death. I didn't want the sentence to imply
}that the officer was on the floor agonizing over a long, painful death;
}but that the sentence convey that it is a completed action (his death).
wej bIyajlaw'. The perfective suffix says NOTHING about the speed of the
death or whether he is dead yet.
wa'leS Hegh yaS - The officer died yesterday.
wa'leS QIt HeghlI' yaS - The officer was dying slowly yesterday.
wa'leS QIt Heghpu' yaS - Yesterday the officer had already died a slow
death. (he could have died a slow death two eeks ago, all this tells him is
that sometime yesterday, he was already dead).
It indicates whether the action was complete before the time the sentence is
about.
Qov [email protected]
Beginners' Grammarian