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

From: "Sally Caves"

(Welcome back, Sally)

> How, for instance, in translation, would you render the
> "contemplative"?  Can you give us an example?  And how
> would it seem different from a subjunctive?
Subjunctive fissions into three moods in Géarthnuns: speculative,
conclusive, and hortative (unless you want to throw German Konjunktiv I into
the mix, and then you can add Géarthnuns discoursive).

> Let's see.  Teonaht has an "inchoative" aspect particle,
Officially, no aspects in Géarthnuns, only tenses (though there are
"perfect" tenses). Most aspect meaning is carried by verbs or adverbs.

> and it also has a "modal" that is used to mean hypothetical
> or possible action.  Let's see what I have there.  Okay,
> I've come back from my page: adry ennyve, "I am about to
> eat," is what I call the "inchoative," action that one
Sí lí í glozh.  Literally: I will just eat. (The same "just" as in "He just
left.", not "only").

> is just starting upon or intending to do.  I distinguish
> it from the "inceptive," expressed by a modal:  y mip ennyve,
> "I'm beginning to eat," "I start or have started eating."
Sí la ba glozh zhgöchez. I pres-aux BA eat start.

Since any two verbs together need to be linked by "ba", and words like "can"
and "want" can be conjugated as any other verb, I don't know if we can say
that Géarthnuns has modals.

> "Wemned," another modal, is T's only inclination towards
> something like the subjunctive or the conditional:  "y wem
> ennyve" means "I may/might/could eat," and it seems to be
> the closest thing to what you call the "contemplative."
This is where the Géarthnuns speculative kicks in:

Sí la hauglozh. I may eat.
I pres-aux eat-spec

> Yet
> I have no name for it, and it often occurs in a cause/effect
> clause:  "Y wem ennyve ti tyr ennyve fy"  (I may eat if you eat
> too.)
Cause-effect, if-then, statements are indicated by a speculative-conclusive
structure in Géarthnuns (making the actual word "if" optional):

(Aim) öçek lí hauglozh, sí lí ífa-u heglozh.
(if) you fut-aux eat-spec, I fut-aux also eat-concl

"I *may* eat if you eat too." threw me for a loop; I'd never considered such
a sentence. But then I recovered. You can't overlap mood prefixes in
Géarthnuns, and to get around that there is a circumlocutory verb "jnéal",
"be that", which fills in dummy grammatical slots and allows two moods to
occur concurrently.

Öçek lí hauglozh, che helkeths lí, gü sí lí ífa-u hauglozh sho, hejnéal.
you fut-aux eat-spec, the that fut-aux, that I fut-aux also eat-spec SHO,
be-concl
Lit.: If you (will) eat, it will be that I may eat too.

> Not a very efficient system, since it covers too many
> subtleties.
Nor mine, but the Géarthçins are a sesquipedalian bunch.

>  I suppose it could stand alone, in which case
> it means "I'm thinking about eating."
Extra verb time here:

Sí la ba glozh mnürdef.
I pres-aux BA glozh think.about/consider

> Y wem run for election
> definitely means "I may run, I'm thinking of running,"
Sí la haushelíkh. I may campaign.

Sí la ba shelíkh mnürdef. I'm thinking of campaigning.

>but
> not necessarily "I should run."  There is another modal,
> "hmened," "to be constrained/obligated to," for that.
Sí la ba shelíkh daikh. I should/have to campaign. ("daikh" works sorta like
French "devoir")

> There is the desiderative modal:  "Y dihs ennyve, dihsry ennyve"
> (I want to eat).
More extra verb time:

Sí la ba glozh üraf.
I pres-aux BA eat want

Kou