[Tlhingan-hol] Aspect, etc

[SuStel]

On 12/2/2015 8:21 AM, André Müller wrote:
> In Russian and many Southeast Asian language, which also have aspect
> (and the latter usually don't have tense), it is possible to say
> something like "I killed him, but didn't kill-him-to-the-end.",
> basically referring to an attempted but failed murder. In the same way,
> it's possible to say "He was dying, but didn't die.", meaning that the
> person or animal did survive after all. That of course is possible in
> Klingon, too: {vIHoH(-taH), 'ach vIHoHpu'be'.} (I'd use {-taH} or even
> {-lI'}, but am not 100% sure that it has to be used here).

That's interesting. I'm not sure anyone on this list would interpret 
{vIHoH 'ach vIHoHpu'be'} as "I killed him but didn't kill him to the 
end" without the continuous suffix. This may very well be an 
English-speaker's bias. I don't remember any canon that works that way.

I think upon seeing or hearing that sentence I'd think, correctly or 
not, of The Princess Bride and being dead but not all dead.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name