Re: Tense and Aspect (was Re: Wow!...)
Saul Epstein 
Mon, 8 Dec 1997 17:03:45 -0600

From: Rob Zook <lalaith*unicom,net>
Date: Friday, December 5, 1997 6:34 PM
 
> At 04:14 PM 12/5/97 -0600, Saul wrote:
> >From: Rob Zook <lalaith*unicom,net>
> >Date: Friday, December 05, 1997 2:49 PM
> <snip>
> >natural possibility. (After he's thought about it, Rob will decide
that 
> >it's not logical enough, and we can reform it for Certain Mode.
;-,) 
> 
> Well, I did not think it "complete" enough. It seems logical enough
> if we can flesh it out more.

It may seem less logical as its complexity becomes more apparent.
 
> >>I'm not so happy with this translation anymore. So I would modify
it to:
> >>
> >>s'at cta va'num ongo s'kalv,djuna s'deelu
> >>
> >
> >What about
> >
> >    va'numka cta'ehi; kalvnama s'at deeluha
> >
> >    find-! fact-PLUR; distort-PERM thou-GEN pleasure-DAT
> 
> Well, I don't know if Twain was speaking in an imperative mode. 
> 
> I forgot about the plural affix. What does the -ma "PERM" affix do?

> I'm also not sure I understand how the Dative affix affects the
meaning 
> either. This is making me wish I picked Latin in high school
instead of
> German ;-)

First, I missed something: cta'ehi should be fact-PLUR-ACC. Second,
-ma is the permissive suffix, analagous to English "may." I probably
followed Twain's grammar more closely than he intended, to be sure.
But requests and suggestions often take the imperative. And the
English imperative construction is simply VO, with S deleted and V in
the second person.

I used the dative in a semi-creative fashion. A close paraphrase
might be something like "to your liking." The original Twain quote
uses "as much as," which is a comparative construction that we're not
equipped for yet.

--
from Saul Epstein
liberty*uit,net
www,johnco,cc,ks,us/~sepstein
"Surak ow'phaaper thes'hi thes'tca'; thes'phaadjar thes'hi
suraketca'."
							-- K'dvarin Urswhl'at