tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 28 09:09:15 2002
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Re: similes
>From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
>>>From: Quvar valer <[email protected]>
>>>vIjonta' vIneH
>
>ja' "Sulu' wa'" <[email protected]>:
>>As I understand it, the -ta' means there is some point in the past at
>>which either the wanting or the opportunity to
>>capture happenned.
>
>Not quite. There is no implication of "past" at all. In fact, the literal
>translation of "I want to have captured prisoners" is probably a reasonable
>way to understand the phrase, with "have captured" being a present state.
When I wrote this I had a feeling that I hadn't made myself clear. When I said past, I meant the relative past (i.e. the past relative to the
timestamp). In this sentence, the most likely timestamp is now - I wish I had captured prisoners, then I would have someone to torture - but the
wanting could be in the future - I am going to regret rescuing the captain instead of capturing prisoners - or in the past - I wanted to have
captured the prisoners - but in all cases the capturing is past aspect in that it occurs (or fails to occur) before the wanting.
Even so, I don't think the issue is worth this much discussion. What we have proven is that, just as in English, a Klingon sentence can be
ambiguous, or it can be very clear and defined, depending on how you phrase it.
>-- ghunchu'wI'
Sulu' wa'