tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Aug 13 21:01:56 1999
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Re: Aspect
In a message dated 8/13/99 9:18:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
<< 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).
>>
You could use perfective on your birthday, if only after the exact time you
were born. I was born at 2:53 PM, so at 2:54 PM, I could say "wa'maH chorgh
ben jIboghpu'," given that wa'maH chorgh ben, I was already born.
T'Lod