Re: Perfect progressive aspect...

At 02:22 23/03/00 -0800, you wrote:
>
>The progressive aspect doesn't really exist in Saalángal (well, in the way
>it is in English, for instance). The three tenses, past, present, and
>future are translated as simple tenses or in the  progressive aspects,
>depending on what the translator feels is right.
>
>The perfect progressive aspect is handled differently, both the auxiliary
>verb to have, and the helped verb are conjugated in the same tense (no
>prefix like the past participle, neither is there a verb for "to be"):
>
>The verbs are: sáen-an - to have, karís-an - to eat, na is the linker
>
>-I had been eating. - Sasáen-an na Kakarís-an isan.
>-I have been eating. - Onsasáen-an na onkakarís-an isan.
>-I will have been eating. - Unsasáen-an na unkakarís-an isan.
>-I could have been eating. - Angsáen-an na angkarís-an isan.
>
>The reason I chose this scheme was, I wanted an original way to handle it.
> Even though I have a past participle prefix (i-), I didn't think of
>adding a present participle prefix (though, I'm thinking that I might add
>it).  Would it make more sense to have a present participle prefix, than
>do what I have above? What do those of you who are copula-less do for this
>aspect, if you do have it?
>
I think it's nice personnally. It reminds me of the way Arabic handles some
tenses, using a verb conjugated at one tense followed by the principal verb
conjugated at another tense. IIRC, the imperfect is rendered in Arabic with
a "verb" (in fact, it's a conjugated form which works as a copula in past
sentences) followed by the principal verb conjugated in the present tense.
the pluperfect is made the same, except that the principal verb is
conjugated in the past. I will look more at it if you want, I have a Teach
Yourself Arabic at home which is quite nice grammatically speaking.

As for my own conlang, I can only think of Itakian right now, which has no
copula and renders the perfect aspect by the word order (trigger-verb for
perfect sentences, instead of verb-trigger-mandatory direct complement for
imperfect sentences).

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
(ou : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepages/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html)