[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: rIQ

[Felix Malmenbeck]

I'm not that good at linguistics jargon, myself, but do I take it that the distinction you see is that -lI' should involve doing something actively, wherefore rIQ would [in most cases] not be used with -lI'?

________________________________
From: Brent Kesler [brent.of.all.people at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 00:05
To: tlhingan-hol at kli.org
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: rIQ



On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Felix Malmenbeck <felixm at kth.se<mailto:felixm at kth.se>> wrote:
> To me, it sounds something has started to hurt you but hasn't finished yet. Like if someone stabbed you, and you could feel the point of the blade cut > into you, but at that moment you know your attacker is still pushing the blade deeper. Or if someone were breaking your arm, and you could feel the > bone fracture, but it hasn't yet snapped. That's what I'd think if I heard you say <jIrIQlI'>.

I'd use <rIQchoHlI'> for that; in the process of becoming injured.

Yeah. I think I was putting too much thought into the English gloss rather than the Klingon word itself. Still, I think of <-lI'> as signifying the progressive aspect, and <rIQ> seems stative to me, so my brain is rejecting <rIQlI'>.

However...

Looking at TKD, it seems that for -lI' to be used, all that's required is a known goal or definite endpoint,

That being said, in TKD MO also mentions -lI' as being a bit like a continuous counterpart to -ta', suggesting that -lI' may imply doing something intentionally. The examples I could find also support this.

I don't know if this is just MO trying to avoid linguistics jargon when describing the progressive, or whether this is something other than the progressive. So far, I've been treating it like the progressive and getting away with it.

bI'reng
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