tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 13 06:19:08 1999

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Re: Aspect



On Fri, 13 Aug 1999 01:13:41 EDT [email protected] wrote:

> In a message dated 8/12/99 1:43:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] 
> writes:
> 
> << >This explains to me why we get things like {ben 'ar bIboghpu'} from 
> Okrand.
>  >I don't care WHEN it was completed.  The action was completed (you're here,
>  >aren't you?), so it got a {-pu'}.  I really don't believe Okrand was
>  >interested in the "it's true every day except your birthday" idea.  That
>  >seems much like relying on a technicality, something rather un-Klingon in my
>  >mind.
>  
>  I *really* doubt Okrand ever considered this business about "except on your
>  birthday"; that's more of an in-joke among Klingonists.  It doesn't sound
>  like something any natural language-speaker would fuss about.
>  
>  ~mark
>  
>   >>
> 
> SatlhIj, 'ach De'vam vISovbe'.  Could someone elighten me as to this whole 
> birthday thing?
> 
> T'Lod

When Okrand provided canon explaining to us that, for example, 
to give my age, I'd say: {loSmaH loS ben jIboghpu'} several 
people got upset because of the use of the perfective. They 
wanted to argue about it.

To calm them, I proposed that this works because, in the 
interest of accuracy, if you go back 44 years before today, I 
will at that point in time already be born, therefore the 
perfective is appropriate.

I offered that as an extention to that idea, on your birthday, 
you might not use the perfective, since on that day, you were 
born (simple past). You had not yet been born (perfective).

Obviously, this is not a popular idea. Either nobody else likes 
it, or those who do are silent while those who don't feel a need 
to explicitly say they don't like it either as an independant 
statement or to reinforce like-minded statements made by others.

Since others said to me at qep'a' and on this list that I speak 
my opinion too strongly, I offer no further opinion on this.

charghwI'



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