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

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.

[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.

> Does anyone know of an existing name for this sort of aspect, or should I
> just stick with the ad hoc "contemplative"?
Like I said, it sounds more like a mood than an aspect. But you don't need
to make more moods just for the sake of theory -- nothing wrong with a
lang that only carries a contemplative (optative/subjunctive) mood in one
conjugation.


T