On 7/25/2019 3:32 PM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
SuStel:
jIghe'choHpu' I became transformed (you're describing having completed a transformation, whether it happened in the past or future).
hmm.. Interesting.. But now I wonder..
When I read {jIghe'pu'}, I understand "I have been transformed". (completed event).
However, the use of {-pu'} on this occasion, gives the meaning, that "I have been transformed, but perhaps later this transformation un-happened".
Whereas, if we say {jIghe'} then this means "I am transformed" i.e. "my transformation still continues".
Is my understanding correct ?
*ghe'* is a "be verb." Let's look at a simpler "be verb" that doesn't sound perfective in English. *Quch* /be happy/ *jIQuch*/I am happy./ Either this is a description of a particular moment in which I am happy, or it's a general description of my state. *jIQuchpu'*/I was happy/. My state of happiness was completed. I may or may not be happy at some other time, but at the time being described my state of happiness ended. Now let's go the new word. It's a more complicated translation in English, but in Klingon isn't just another "be verb." Syntactically, it's completely identical to *Quch.* *ghe'*/be transformed, transmuted, metamorphosed, totally altered./ This is describing a state, not an action. *jIghe'* /I am transformed./ I am in an altered state, some other state than the one before. *jIghe'pu'*/I was transformed./ I was in an altered state, but that altered state has come to an end. I may or may not be in an altered state now, but the altered state being described ended. *jIghe'pu'* /I was transformed/ does not mean *vIghe'moHlu'pu'*/I was transformed./ That's just a trick of English grammar. One says I was in an altered state; the other says someone did something to change me. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name