Vulcan Verbs Saul R. Epstein Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:04:26 -0500 I've done some checking so that I can feel I little more like I know what I'm talking about. There are at least three characteristics that can be specified for a verb: tense, aspect, and mood. Tense pinpoints the "now" or moment of the action/state which the verb refers to, and in general can have one of three values: past (the moment of the action/state precedes the speech's moment), present (the moment of the action/state coincides with the speech's moment), and future (the moment of the action/state follows the speech's moment). Vulcan seems in places to possess a fourth tense for action/states whose moment bears no relation to the moment of speech, or at least bears an unknown relationship. Aspect describes the completion, duration, etc., of the action/state relative the moment pointed to by the tense. Some possible aspects include perfect (the action/state transpired within the moment), imperfect (the action/state began within the moment but did not end within it), progressive (the action/state began before the moment and ended after it), and habitual (the action/state has been and will continue to be repeated). Mood describes the attitude of the speaker toward an entire statement, such as indicative (speaker views statement as fact), imperative (speaker views statement as command or request), subjunctive (speaker views statement as intention or possibility), and interrogative (speaker views statement as question). This does not exhaust the possible distinctions a language can make, nor is any language required to make any specific distinctions. Also, the different distinctions can be made using different morphological structures. English, for example, has an inflected past perfect -- "spoke" -- and present perfect -- "speak" -- (that is, these are shown using one word whose form changes). But nearly all other matters of tense and so on are achieved by complicated combinations of inflection and auxiliary words -- "have spoken," "am speaking" -- or by auxiliary words alone -- "will speak." The imperative is shown by omitting the subject, while the interrogative is shown putting the verb at the beginning of the sentence. The possibilities are endless, and just because one would expect Vulcans to be "logical" about their language does not mean that their language would not seem to us complicated and strange. > Just to see what we're working with so far, here's a list of the tenses and > such currently contained in the ZC, section 6,4 > > ----- > 1. Eternal -0- (<- this is a zero) > without beginning or end: "Entropy increases." > or, "We could paint it red..." [?] This seems to be either Present or Tense-which-Is-No-Tense, Habitual or Progressive, and possibly Subjunctive. But I'm not sure I understand how it is meant to be used. > 2. Continous -mu- (ine'pramula [?]) > of undetermined beginning and end: "People speak." This is more certainly Present, Habitual. But I can't be sure about it either. > 3. Present Continuous -cu- (th'pracula) > beginning now and of undetermined end: "I speak and may go on for some time." > > 4. Present Discontinuous -kse- (th'praksela) > beginning now and ending soon: "I speak briefly." 3 and 4 are both Present Imperfect, the difference being one of duration. 4 may be close to Present Perfect, with the added recognition that things rarely happen in their entirety "now," while a particular statement is being made. > 5. Present Progressive -zo- (th'prazola) > beginning before now and ending after now: "I am speaking." > > 6. Past -pe- (th'prapela) > beginning and ending before now: "I spoke." These are about the only two that seem straight-forward tense-aspect markers. Which is just as well. Too much straight-forwardness in language -- especially an alien language -- is unnatural. > 7. Future Intentional -dzha- (th'pradzhala) > "I will speak." > > 8. Future Potential -dzhu- (th'pradzhula) > "I might speak." These seem to be two forms of Future, Subjunctive. > 9. Negative -i- (th'praila) > "I don't speak." And this seems to be purely a mood marker, in this case a Negative mood. I can't tell whether it would mean closer to "I don't speak" (or the more contemporary "I'm not speaking") or "I never speak." All of these nine markers seem to interact with various particles in ways that may further diversify expression. That may be what I look at next, unless I get distracted. I note with interest that this system provides many different ways to talk specifically about the future, but relatively few to talk specifically about the past... -- from Saul R. Epstein Terran, Late 20th-Early 21st Century liberty uit net www johnco cc ks us sepstein posse circumuertutus libertas satis est