tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 05 04:46:30 2007

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Re: usage of type-7 aspect suffix {-pu}

Alan Anderson ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']



ja'pu' Doq:

> {qaStaHvIS wa'maH chorgh DIS moHpu'...} does not mean "He's been
> ugly for eighteen years..."

ja' QeS 'utlh:

> I don't think {-DI'} is any better. "As soon as eighteen years  
> happened, he had been ugly." It's important to remember that  
> {qaStaHvIS} is literally a sentence meaning "while they happen",  
> and translating it as "for" is a bit misleading. Maybe it's just  
> best phrased by inverting the two sentences: {moHtaHvIS qaSpu'  
> wa'maH chorgh DIS} "eighteen years had happened while he was ugly".  
> That works much better, I think.

I think Doq will have the same complaint about the inverted  
phrasing.  But his strict reading of the interaction between {- 
taHvIS} and {-pu'} isn't necessarily correct, as the example I gave  
in my previous note demonstrates.

-- ghunchu'wI'





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