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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/22/2018 12:26 PM, Lieven L.
Litaer wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:19b5cf22-7684-2373-18c1-f8a7d2fbafa8@gmx.de">On
12/22/2018 10:27 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="color: #000000;">So, on one hand, I
want to say "I have never asked for your help", on the other
hand though, my "not asking for his help" still continues..
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
I believe that you are still thinking too much from the English
(or greek) point of view. The aspect suffixes indicate whether the
action is completed, not when it happened.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>This is correct.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:19b5cf22-7684-2373-18c1-f8a7d2fbafa8@gmx.de">
If you say {not qaghelpu'} then it's OVER. It means that the
situation has changed, or at least finished. As you wrote above,
you do not intend to ask in the future either, so it cannot be
over, it's still going on.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>This is not correct.</p>
<p>That <b>not</b> makes this a hypothetical action. It's a kind of
irrealis. It's pointing to a hypothetical completed action, and
saying "except it didn't happen."<i> I asked for your help</i> (a
completed action)<i>... nope, that never happened.</i></p>
<p>This sentence isn't expressing a true state; it's expressing an
irrealis. This is what's tripping you up.</p>
<p>Think of the scope of the <b>-pu':</b> you're thinking of it as
<b>[not qaghel]pu'</b><i> </i>(my never asking you is completed);
but it's really <b>not [qaghelpu']</b> (my completed asking you
never occurred).<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:19b5cf22-7684-2373-18c1-f8a7d2fbafa8@gmx.de">
My suggestion is to leave any aspect suffix off,
<br>
<br>
{not qaghel}
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>This means <i>I never ask you.</i> (<b>ghel</b> is the wrong
verb here; <b>tlhob</b> is the verb used for making requests; <b>ghel</b>
is for asking for information.) It might be used to express a
general state, and could very well be appropriate for the
situation under consideration, but it doesn't say the same thing
as <b>not qaghelpu'</b><i> I have never asked you.</i></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:19b5cf22-7684-2373-18c1-f8a7d2fbafa8@gmx.de">
and to emphasize, maybe add {-taH}:
<br>
<br>
{not qaghel, 'ej not qagheltaH}
<br>
"I never asked you, and I never will."
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>This would be better translated as <i>I never ask you, and I
continue to not ask you.</i> It's redundant, and any notion of
the future isn't really implied. If someone said <b>not qaghelpu'
'ej qaghelbe'taH,</b> I'd understand this as the original
intention: <i>I've never asked you and I continue not to ask you.</i>
If talking about the future were necessary, I'd put in some kind
of time expression.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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