[Tlhingan-hol] A demonstration of aspect we can all follow

[Robyn Stewart]

At 14:42 '?????' 6/7/2012, you wrote:
>On 6/7/2012 4:08 PM, Qov wrote:
>>jaj Hoch qama' vIyu'lI'. Hoch De' vISuqta' 'e' wuqDI' ra'wI'wI',
>>qama' vIHoHta' 'ej 'uQ vISopmeH jImejpu'.
>>
>>DaparHa''a'?
>
>Everything except possibly the {vISuqta'}. If you meant to say "When 
>my commander decided that I had acquired all the information," then 
>you're employing past perfect tense.

I didn't translate it, and I wrote it in a language that doesn't have 
tense, so I didn't use past perfect tense at all.

>  If you mean something like "When my commander decided that I had 
> started and completed acquiring all the information," then I'd 
> accept it, although it seems a strange way to say it.

It is in English. Maybe for English we'd go noun-based and say, "When 
my commander decided the data acquisition was complete." I have to 
agree with charghwI's frustration here that it seems unnecessary to 
bring the beginning of the action into this. Would the sentence be 
different for you if the first shift had started interrogating the 
prisoner and then gone for breakfast and this guy came on for the 
relief shift and finished the job? Not to me. I don't really care 
what the English might be, just that the boss says they've got all 
the info and they can go and have qagh Qop sandwiches now.  I'll have 
to go back and re-read your arguments to see how you justify that the 
beginning of the action needs to be in the time period.

>I'm not sure what the alternative is, though.

At least that means you're not going to come up with a different way 
to say it. mayajchuqmo' jIyon.