Re: a verb aspect--what's it called?

On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 10, 2000 at 04:16:39PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > I was hoping to have 3 aspects, no tenses-per-se, for verbs:
> >
> > contemplative (ad hoc name): an action that hasn't begun or is being
> >   considered, or wished, or wondered about--something that hasn't
> >   actually happened
> > progressive: an action that's happening or in progress
> > completive: an action that's been completed and tied off
>
> This sounds like my conlang's verb aspects: inceptive, progressive, and
> perfective, though my inceptive is referring to the beginning of an
> action, rather than a comtemplative. I like the term "contemplative"
> though... though it seems more like a mood than an aspect.
I still can't tell the difference between a mood and an aspect.  I don't
have any equivalent article-printout on moods, alas.

> [snip]
> > which is great in that it has a lot of neat examples (a number of which I
> > stole for Chevraqis), but couldn't find anything that corresponds to
> > "contemplative" (I thought it might be inchoative, but it seems not).
>
> Inchoactive is more like my conlang's inceptive than your contemplative. I
> think you probably want to look under "mood" for contemplative -- perhaps
> the optative or the subjunctive, or some variation thereof.
Enlighten me--what is the optative?

YHL the ignorant, alas