Re: time distinctions

> From: Yoon Ha Lee
>
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>
> > E.g., Laadan verbs can indicate various degrees of "trust",
> e.g., you use
> > one form for information you got from somebody that you don't trust,
> > another form for your own opinion, another form for info from
> somebody you
> > totally trust (and therefore assume as fact), etc..
>
> I'm using evidentiality because <rueful sigh>  it's neat, darnit, though
> the system I'm using isn't as complex.
Evidential are an integral part of the epistemic modal system in amman iar
an include such distinctions as quotative/hearsay evidentials, i.e. the
speaker’s evidence is based on secondhand information; and sensory, i.e. the
speaker’s evidence is based on firsthand sensory information.  The latter
has further distinction based on the sense providing the information,
visual, auditory, olfactory, or tactile.

> > Another thing you can do with verbs is "mood":
> > - Indicative: the "usual" tense, used for making statements ("He was at
> >   the house")
> > - Imperative: for commands ("Go to the house!")
> > - Optative: something the speaker wishes to happen ("I wish that he
> >   would go to the house!")
> > - Subjunctive: for possible happenings which may or may not be actual
> >   occurrences ("if he had gone to the house, he would have seen the
> >   thief")
> > - Hortative(sp?): speaker tells himself, or the group he's representing,
> >   to do something ("Let's go to the house!")
>
> I've got indicative and imperative.  Optative will probably some other c
> construction.  You'd use the "probable" (an aspect?  though my wretched
> Japanese grammar calls it a "mood") for the subjunctive.
Probable is a mood IMO as well, it's an epistemic judgment.  Certainly not
an aspect.

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
not sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein