[tlhIngan Hol] KLBC - How to say "I like to do/doing something"

Aurélie Demonchaux demonchaux.aurelie at gmail.com
Sun Feb 12 07:27:13 PST 2017


Thanks for your help and explanations Sustel !

I think I get it now :)

~mughwI'

PS: "TARDIS-blue", I love your choice of example ;) Whovian jIH !


2017-02-11 18:16 GMT+01:00 SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name>:

> On 2/11/2017 8:34 AM, Aurélie Demonchaux wrote:
>
> Indeed the lack of tense can be a bit confusing sometimes and it's taking
> me a bit of time getting used to.
>
> I'm still working to figure out also how it works with the verb suffixes.
>
> For example, in the 4 possible sentences below, do I get the exact nuances
> right?
>
> jIvutpu’ ’e’ vIparHa’
> - I like that I cooked (at some point in the past)
> - I like that I have cooked (just now)
> - I like finishing to cook (maybe implying that this is when I can finally
> eat ;)
>
>
> "At some point in the past" implies past tense, which we know Klingon
> doesn't have. Instead, the *-pu'* tells us that "I cook" is a completed
> action. In English we can't separate tense and aspect, so the distinction
> is difficult for English-speakers to grasp.
>
>
> *jIvutpu' *
> *I cooked; I have cooked; I will have cooked *I perform, performed, or
> will perform an act of cooking, and I now, did, or will complete that act.
>
> The single word in no way tells you whether the action is past, present,
> or future. It means all of them and none of them at the same time, the same
> way that *blue* means sky-blue and navy-blue and TARDIS-blue all at the
> same time.
>
>
> *wa'Hu' jIvutpu' **yesterday I cooked; yesterday I had cooked*
>
>
> *DaH jIvutpu' **right now I have cooked*
>
>
> *wa'leS jIvutpu' **tomorrow I will have cooked*
>
> Contexts like these are required to determine *when* the cooking happened.
>
> If you don't use an aspect suffix, you are explicitly talking about an
> action that is not completed (or continuous) in the moment your are
> describing.
>
>
> *jIvut **I cook; **It's true that I cook things*
>
> This also does not specify *when* an action happened, which requires
> context:
>
>
> *wa'Hu' jIvut **I cooked yesterday; it's true that I engaged in cooking
> yesterday*
>
>
> *DaH jIvut **I cook now; at other times I may not have cooked, but it's
> true that I cook now*
>
>
> *wa'leS jIvut **I will cook tomorrow; tomorrow I'll do some cooking*
>
> You can make a similar comparison with the continuous suffixes.
>
> --
> SuStelhttp://trimboli.name
>
>
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