tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 20 09:44:23 2002
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Re: KLBC: Complex Sentences
At 06:44 20/11/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>ghItlh Robyn:
>
>>I don't see any problems with the type-9s, but you need to address >your
>>overuse of the perfective. Do you know what it means? It does >not mean
>>that the action is in the past at the time you say the >sentence, it
>>means that the action is completed at the time the >sentence is
>>set. It's kind of like the inverse of -pa'.
>
>qatlho'. vIyajchu'be'. taghwI' jIH 'e' yIqaw. mu'tlhegh chen vIyaj,
>'ach mu'mey law' vInejnIS. Hoch vIyajbe'. QIt jIpo'choHlI'. yItuv.
>
>(I took a chance using "chen" as a noun, "form"...it may not work that way
>but I was at a loss.)
qay'be', qay'be'. You did nicely with the type-9s and that's what Quvar
noted. I didn't want your use of -pu' and -ta' as past tense to go
unchecked. A lot of taghwI'pu' want to indicate that their sentences arein
the past, because their English ones are, and they grab the perfective for
that purpose. They're wrong, they need to be told.
Remember: ghorgh tujchoHpu' bIQ from the Appendix. It is translated "when
will the water be hot?" and is a very good example of the correct use of
the perfective.
As for your sentence with chen, I'd say mu'tlhegh vIchenmoHlaH, or
mu'tlhegh chenmoHmeH mIw vIyaj.