Re: Placement of aspect suffixes

["William H. Martin" <whm2m@server1.mail.virginia.edu>]

On Tue, 23 Feb 1999 19:19:01 -0800 (PST) WestphalWz@aol.com 
wrote:

> In a message dated 2/22/1999 12:58:26 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
> pag000@mail.connect.more.net writes:
> 
> << A trick I often use myself is to ask if the word 'already' is
>  appropriate, and if it is, I put the verb in perfective.  This
>  tends to do away with confusing aspect with tense, since it works
>  in any time frame: "I had already done..., I already did...,
>  I will have already done..."
>   >>
> 
> YOU may use this trick, but what basis do we have in the Klingon language that
> this is the right trick to be using?
> 
> peHruS

Well, "already" tends to be used on things which are "complete", 
which is what the perfective indicates. The man has a good trick 
that makes a lot of sense. In particular, it helps him avoid the 
gaffs you often make because you so often use the perfective to 
mean simple past tense, even when you already have given a time 
stamp indicating past tense.

He is trying to help you improve your Klingon with a tool that 
really works. Your response is to simply challenge the validity 
of the tool.

It doesn't strike you as interesting that several other people 
fairly good with the language repeatedly suggest to you that you 
misuse the perfective even after years of using the language, 
and now someone is offering you a tool specifically tuned to 
helping someone detect whether or not the perfective is 
appropriate in a given sentence?

So, if you understand the perfective so well, why is it that 
several of us keep pointing out how you misuse it, but we don't 
have a problem with how it is used by other experienced 
Klingonists? Do you honestly believe that we have formed a 
conspiracy of error, agreeing on a mistaken method of deciding 
whether or not the perfective is appropriate, while ignoring the 
proper way to use it, which you alone (and perhaps a few rank 
beginners) use?

charghwI' 'utlh