tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Aug 20 17:00:05 2003
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RE: no matter what happens...
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: no matter what happens...
- Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:57:48 -0400
>From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
>pagh:
>>I think <SISlI'> may work for some of the desert thunderstorms we get
>>where
>>I live. The rain starts abruptly, it rains hard for a short while, and
>>then
>>it stops. Sometimes they last as little as ten minutes, and sometimes you
>>can even see the stormcloud passing overhead. I'd say this kind of rain
>>has
>>a definite stopping point.
>
>Why not just use {loQ} "slightly, a little bit, briefly, short": {pay' loQ
>SISqu'} or {pay' loQ jev}, etc. That's what it's for.
>
>I think this is a matter of viewpoint. Do you really know when it starts
>what the "definite" stopping point of each individual thunderstorm is?
>(E.g. This is a 10 min. storm, but that one is a 20 min. rain??) Or is it
>just an informed guess based on experience?
You don't need to know specifically the stopping point in order to use
/-lI'/. All you need to know is that there is one. And the language isn't
going to ask for proof that you definitely know it; using /-lI'/ would be,
at worst, a bit of hyperbole to make the point.
>My point was that *all* kinds of rain eventually have a stopping point - at
>least on Earth - whether a brief rain of a few minutes duration (e.g. a
>shower, downpour) or an extended rain of several weeks (e.g. a monsoon),
>but that exact point is nevertheless unknown. "Whenever it stops" is not
>enough.
Rain doesn't necessarily always stop at a "definite" point, though. It can
taper off. What pagh seems to be describing sounds like rain that suddenly
stops. You may not know it in advance, but saying /SISlI'/ leads the
listener to understand that the rain is the sort that progresses toward a
goal of stopping, rather than one that slowly tapers out.
SuStel
Stardate 3635.6
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