[Tlhingan-hol] Translating the past

[Bellerophon, modeler]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 6:23 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:

>
> Klingon -pu' and -ta' have examples showing both PERFECTIVE and PERFECT
> aspects. They can mean either of these things. TKD calls it "perfective,"
> but the definition is not strictly correct. What most people believe,
> incorrectly as I see it, is that these suffixes indicate what is correctly
> called perfect aspect.
>

Could one not say {wa'leS ghaH HoHlu'pu'}, indicating that by tomorrow he
will have gotten himself killed? This sentence uses perfective but not in
any past sense, Klingon cultural attitudes toward counting one's chickens
notwithstanding. If grammar allows such a construction, it would divorce
-pu' and -ta' from any connection with the past, except insofar as the past
is more somewhat more certain than the future.

~'eD

-- 
My modeling blog:          http://bellerophon-modeler.blogspot.com/
My other modeling blog:  http://bellerophon.blog.com
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