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on 4/3/02 5:36 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > Rex May - Baloo wrote: >> >> on 4/2/02 9:59 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: >> >>> Rex May - Baloo wrote: >>>> >>>> Aspect. So far, Ceqli has the progressive aspect with particle 'gi' >>>> >>>> Go soma. I read. Go gi soma. I am reading. >>>> >>>> And it sort of has aspect with the composite tenses: >>>> >>>> Go pa ja. I went. >>>> Go pa pa ja. I had gone. >>>> Go fu pa ja. I will have gone. >>> >>> I don't think the same particle should be used both for past tense and >>> for perfect aspect. What if I want to express the perfect and ignore >>> the tense? (Which Mandarin speakers do quite frequently.) Don't be >>> thrown off by the fact that tense and aspect are so strongly >>> intertwined in English. >> >> Good point. The only thing that corresponds in English that I know of is >> the dialectal 'done', which seems to be tense-free at least in some >> instances. Anyhow, it can be present or past. I think Esperanto uses 'jam' >> (already) the same way, sometimes. So if Ceqli has a word meaning 'already' >> it can serve as the 'completion' aspect marker? > > I really like "done" in this meaning, as opposed to "already". > Existing Ceqli "fin" might also be usable, but I can see it having a > slightly different shade of meaning. > > (BTW, Mandarin <le> is derived from <liao3>, meaning "to complete".) > > Let's say we used "don" (from English "done"): > > Go fu komdon fuco dorm. I'll eat (all done), then sleep. > Go pa komdon fuco dorm. I ate (all done), then slept. Okay. Now, 'don' is already used for 'give,' but we can use 'dun.' My first urge would be to use is as an auxiliary verb, IE style. Go fu dun kom, fuco dorm. I'll get done eating, then sleep. Go pa dun kom, fuco dorm. I got done eating, then slept. But if that's possible, your form is also possible, on the principle of the head-last. >PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: rmay@hidden.email > Rex F. May (Baloo) > Daily cartoon at: http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp > Buy my book at: http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/gdummy.htm > Language site at: http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/Uploadexp.htm >Discuss my auxiliary language at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/txeqli/