[tlhIngan Hol] thoughts on the perfective {-pu'}

[Will Martin]

So, since there’s no {bIchultaH} in the sentence, we’re not really saying much in terms of the duration of Kahless being wise. At some point while he was living, he was wise, at least once. Maybe several times. Maybe a lot of times, but certainly not continuously.

So, really it sounds like we’re just saying that he was occasionally wise or at least once he was wise before he crossed over to the great beyond, but if he was wise in the afterlife, we don’t know about it. We’ll just dodge the issue with “No comment.” Also, before he was born, if there’s a place Kahless existed, he wasn’t noted for being wise there, either.

We are limiting ourselves to the time period during which he was alive, and we are noting that for at least one moment during one event within his lifespan, he was wise.

We are offering rather limited praise here.

> On Jul 16, 2022, at 10:56 AM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On 7/16/2022 9:29 AM, D qunen'oS wrote:
>> If instead of {bIyIntaHvIS bIchul ’e’ Da’aghta’} we had {bIchul ’e’ Da’aghta’ bIyIntaHvIS}, would there be any difference?
> (I'm going to drop the -ta' because it freaks me out.)
> 
> bIyIntaHvIS bIchul 'e' Da'agh.
> You are wise while you live. You show that.
> 
> bIchul 'e' Da'agh bIyIntaHvIS.
> You are wise. You show that while you live.
> 
> In the first sentence, you are being wise while living. In the second, you are showing while living. If the showing and the being wise cover the same time span, then there is no practical difference between these even though there is a conceptual difference. If showing and being wise are not identical in time span, then the difference between being wise while living and showing while living is significant.
> 
> -- 
> SuStel
> http://trimboli.name
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