[102737] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Aspect, etc
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (SuStel)
Wed Dec 2 07:57:42 2015
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
From: SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 07:56:40 -0500
In-Reply-To: <F2147691-0757-44AC-83D0-723C7400C8E0@gmail.com>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@kli.org
On 12/2/2015 6:49 AM, lojmIt tI'wI' nuv wrote:
> On Dec 2, 2015, at 4:50 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin@gmail.com> wrote:
>> {'opHu' targh vIHoH} "some day in the past, I killed a targ".
>
> ... which is pretty much indistinguishable in meaning to {targh
> vIHoHpu'.}
>
> But uglier. Approximate, but not inaccurate. How Terran.
(A) It's not the same.
(B) That was rude.
More on (A). {-pu'} doesn't mean "before now" or even "before the time
context." It means "completed action." "Before the time context" would
be past tense, and as we know Klingon verbs do not express tense.
"Completed" is an aspect and does not say whether an action happened
before, at, or after the time context.
Frankly, both versions are a bit wrong. {'opHu' targh vIHoH} describes
an action that is not completed, as if I spent the day killing several
targs, or torturing one targ to death. {targh vIHoHpu'} describes the
completed killing of one or more targs, but doesn't say anything at all
about when this took place, past, present, or future.
If I want to express the idea that several days ago I killed a targ and
it was a completed action, that would be {'op Hu' targh vIHoHpu'}.
(C) Inaccurate but not approximate is a cute line in Power Klingon, but
to be intentionally imprecise because of this line is ridiculous. To
criticize someone's language because of this line is unhelpful.
--
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/
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