tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Dec 05 04:46:30 2007
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Re: usage of type-7 aspect suffix {-pu}
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'