On 12/22/2018 12:26 PM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
On 12/22/2018 10:27 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
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..
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.
This is correct.
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.
This is not correct. That *not* 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 asked for your help/ (a completed action)/... nope, that never happened./ This sentence isn't expressing a true state; it's expressing an irrealis. This is what's tripping you up. Think of the scope of the *-pu':* you're thinking of it as *[not qaghel]pu'*//(my never asking you is completed); but it's really *not [qaghelpu']* (my completed asking you never occurred).
My suggestion is to leave any aspect suffix off,
{not qaghel}
This means /I never ask you./ (*ghel* is the wrong verb here; *tlhob* is the verb used for making requests; *ghel* 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 *not qaghelpu'*/I have never asked you./
and to emphasize, maybe add {-taH}:
{not qaghel, 'ej not qagheltaH} "I never asked you, and I never will."
This would be better translated as /I never ask you, and I continue to not ask you./ It's redundant, and any notion of the future isn't really implied. If someone said *not qaghelpu' 'ej qaghelbe'taH,* I'd understand this as the original intention: /I've never asked you and I continue not to ask you./ If talking about the future were necessary, I'd put in some kind of time expression. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name