tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 04 11:27:42 1999
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Re: Aspect
In a message dated 3/4/1999 8:51:12 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
<<
> be' SuchDI' loD, loD leghtaH puq = When the man visits the woman, the boy
will
> still be seeing him.
This feels a little out of focus. The point is that the moment
the man visits the woman is a moment that occurs somewhere
within a vague duration during which the boy continuously sees
the man. We don't care when the boy started seeing the man or
when he will stop. We are not paying attention to that. The
visit is an event. The seeing is an ongoing process. It doesn't
have to be perpetual, just ongoing. >>
================
I've been hoping that the aspect marker {-taH} does not mean that the
absolutely must be perpetual, just ongoing. But, how do you KNOW? My answer:
I would follow the sentence including continuous aspect with one showing an
ending to the action. Question: By your comparison to ASL, would not the
action still be ongoing in succeeding sentences with null aspect markers until
another time stamp be used? Of what I know of ASL, the manner of action
(after all, that is the definition of aspect) obtains until changed.
Still, if I say: {qaStaHvIS vagh jajmey, matlhutlhtaH}, would not the Klingon
inference be that we drank non-stop day and night until all five days had
passed?
If this is true, we have not yet settled the problem of "intermittent" action.
peHruS