tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 11 13:05:46 2002
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aspect
- From: Andrew Strader <[email protected]>
- Subject: aspect
- Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 17:05:25 +0000
- Organization: Decode
>I have several uses of taH as "still".
It would have been nice if you could have posted these uses. :) Anyway, in
the interest of prudence, here is what I have found.
reH 'uQvam vIqawtaH. = I will always remember this meal.
bInajtaHvIS qeylIS Daghomjaj. = May Kahless visit you in your dreams.
pa'Daq jIHtaH = I am in the room.
batlh Daqawlu'taH = You will be remembered with honor.
jISoptaH 'ej QongtaH = I am eating, and he/she is sleeping.
The counter-presuppositional adverb "still" is not implied by any of these
sentences. How am I supposed to know to interpret the third sentence as "I am
still in the room". (As if there were ever any doubt?) Also consider:
lojmIt Da logh Hop Hut tengchaH.
vaj loghDaq lenglaHtaH Humanpu'.
Paraphrasally: "DS9 acts as a door. So humans can (still??) travel in space."
By TKD's description (pp.41-42) and most of the canonical examples, it is
more sensible to interpret -taH in the above example as meaning mainly that
the travel is a continuous activity. The meaning of the adverb "still" and
continuous aspect have little to do with each other semantically. Neither
meaning is implied, suggested, or even made more likely by the other. I
wouldn't like to see people making a "-taH=still" connection because it would
severely muddle up communications which are already muddled enough. Rather
than making this overly simple assocation, I strongly suggest that you think
about what you really mean when you say "still" and render that with Klingon
tools, or better yet, think first in Klingon.
chaHvaD vIQIjtaH 'ach luyajchoHbe'qu'.
I was explaining it to them but they still didn't get it.
--
Andrew Strader