tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 04 12:35:11 1999
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RE: Aspect
- From: "Andeen, Eric" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: Aspect
- Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 13:37:44 -0700
jatlh peHruS:
>loD leghpu' puq = The boy has seen the man.
>loD leghta' puq = The boy saw the man and may see him again.
>loD leghlI' puq = The boy sees the man now but won't keep on seeing him for
>long.
jatlh DloraH:
> Where did the [...and may see him again] come from?
taQbej.
> TKD p41: "-ta' accomplished, done
> This suffix is similar to -pu', but it is used when an activity was
> deliberately undertaken, the implication being that someone set out to do
> something and in fact did it. English translations seldom reveal the
> distinction."
bIlughba'. If I wanted to be really explicit about this, I would say "The
boy set out to see the man, he saw him, and now he's done seeing him."
> -lI' implies that there is a goal. Progress is being made toward that
goal.
> It is not simply that 'taH is continuous and -lI' has an ending.
> -taH is continuous whether there is a known goal or not. -lI' can be used
> only when there is an implied goal.
bIlughqa'. I would like to clarify a little bit here. TKD says that the
activity has "a know goal or a definite stopping point", and uses the word
"goal" through the rest of the text. This strongly indicates that the "goal"
is not necessarily something anyone set out intentionally to do - it's just
the logical conclusion of the action. This opens <-lI'> up to a wider range
of usage than <-ta'>.
Also, the "... but won't keep on seeing him for long" doesn't really follow.
<-lI'> means progress toward a goal, but that goal does not have to be in
the immediate future. I have a coworker who built a plane (yes, a real, full
sized airplane). When he started, he had no idea how long it would take, and
it wound up taking about two years. During that time, I could obviously say
<muDDuj chenmoHtaH>, but I could also more accurately say <muDDuj
chenmoHlI'>. Three months into the project, completion was not iminent - he
still didn't even know how long it would take - but he was progressing
toward the goal.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian