tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 25 14:57:40 1999
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Re: Imperatives with aspect
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: Imperatives with aspect
- Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 17:57:02 EDT
jatlh "[email protected]":
>I was wondering what the meaning of imperative verbs with aspect suffixes
>would mean.
>-pu' means an action is finished or completed, so tlhutlhpu' would mean "he
>finished drinking" or "he completed (the act of) drinking".
>
>Would yItlhutlhpu' mean "Finish drinking!"?
My first inclination would be to say that {yItlhutlhpu'} is just as
nonsensical as "Have drunk!", but now that you mention it, maybe it could
mean, "Finish drinking!" {yItlhutlh} means that the state {bItlhutlh} should
exist in the future, so perhaps {yItlhutlhpu'} means that the state
{bItlhutlhpu'} should exist in the future, so that {yItlhutlhpu'} means,
"Cause yourself to have finished drinking in the future," or, more concisely,
"Finish drinking."
>LIkewise: yItlhutlhta' "Finish drinking (on purpose)!" (or something along
>those lines)
Ditto what I just said, so that {yItlhutlhta'} might mean, "Cause yourself to
have finished drinking in the future (intentionally)."
>yItlhutlhtaH "Keep drinking!"
This would probably only be true if the context were right. I suspect that it
could also mean, "Be in the continuous state of drinking," or "Start drinking
(with no definite stopping point)."
>yItlhutlhlI' "Keep drinking! (but stop eventually)"
Ditto. {yItlhutlhlI'} might mean, "Be in the process of drinking," or, "Start
drinking (with a definite stopping point)."
- DujHoD