[Tlhingan-hol] Time and Type 7 verb suffixes

[De'vID]

SuStel:
> > **Note that whenever Okrand uses -Daq <pro> to describe the location of
> > a movable object, he uses {-taH}, whereas whenever he describes the
> > location of a permanent object he uses no aspect suffix.**

QeS 'utlh:
> Not quite "whenever". Skybox card S27 has {-taH} on a permanent object:
>
> pa' 'oHtaH vaS'a''e'
> The Great Hall is there

Actually, I believe the translation is "This is where the Klingon Great
Hall is located..."

So I did my convert-to-Cantonese mental check on aspect, and I believe this
example doesn't contradict SuStel's hypothesis about moveable objects.

Trying to express "the bathroom is there" with a continuous aspect in
Cantonese didn't work for me (but see below), whereas "this is where the
Parliament Building is" works fine.  The difference is that a bathroom is a
fixed location inside a building, whereas the Klingon Great Hall or a
Parliament Building *is* a moveable object within a city or country, even
though you might not think of it as one.

When I express "the Parliament Building is (continuous) here", it implies
that it used to be somewhere else, or may be somewhere else in the future.
It's not that the *building* can be moved, it's that the *label*
"Parliament Building" or "Klingon Great Hall" can be transferred from one
building to another.

Actually, come to think of it, I *can* say something like "the bathroom is
(continous) there", if a building is under construction and they have one
of those temporary toilets.  But the meaning is different with and without
the suffix.  With a continuous aspect marker, there's an implication that
the location isn't fixed.

Klingon doesn't have to work the same way as Cantonese, but at least the
relationship between fixed and moveable locations and continuous aspect
that SuStel proposed can actually work.

--
De'vID
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