[Tlhingan-hol] Time and Type 7 verb suffixes

[Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh]

jIjatlhpu':
> Heghpu'bogh latlhpu' ghuHmoH bey. ghoS tlhIngan SuvwI' maq.
> ...and also serves to warn the
> other dead that a Klingon warrior is coming
> {ghoS} here needs {-lI'} or {-taH}. Period. In context there is no other
> possible option if a null type 7 necessarily implies non-continuous and
> non-perfective aspect.

mujang SuStel, jatlh:
> This is not correct. Another appropriate, but not so colloquial,
> translation of the phrase {ghoS tlhIngan SuvwI'} is "a Klingon warrior
> comes."

In the English, "a Klingon warrior comes" is no better: it verges on weird
for me in context. "The howl proclaims that a Klingon warrior comes." Nope,
I'd correct that to "is coming" every time. Unless there's some temporal
adjunct to allow it to take the habitual/imperfective sense (e.g. "a Klingon
warrior comes every night"), the plain aspect here is very strange for me
in either English or Klingon.

Let me try another argument.

In the previous sentence from S31, {Heghpu'bogh latlhpu' ghuHmoH bey}, we
have two aspects: the imperfective/habitual {ghuHmoH} and the perfective
{Heghpu'bogh}. The general or unbounded nature of the whole situation is
given by {ghuHmoH}, but the use of the perfective in the subordinate clause
denotes something that was completed by the time of the situation - i.e.
the action denoted by the main verb, {ghuHmoH}.

In the same way, in the sentence {ghoS tlhIngan SuvwI' maq}, the general or
unbounded nature of the whole situation is given by {maq}, but from the
perspective of the whole situation, surely the act of the dead Klingon's
spirit {ghoS}ing the other dead is in continuous and incomplete progress,
and thus requires {-taH}? Or am I still misunderstanding it?

taH:
> By choosing another translation, I have tried to excise the in-progress
> sense exhibited by the English translation which doesn't appear in the
> Klingon. It's not telling you that a Klingon warrior is making progress
> toward arriving, or continuously in motion; it's saying that a Klingon
> warrior happens to be taking the path that leads to the other dead. It
> is stating the warrior's position or condition,


A condition that is, in the context of the general situation (i.e. the
proclamation, or {maq}), continuous and non-completed, qar'a'?

> and this is not an inherently continuous idea.



I still don't understand how that's the case. You can only say it's not
an inherently continuous idea by assuming the truth of your premise. Is
there another way you can explain it?

QeS 'utlh