Re: *junctions of time

Taliesin wrote:
> Given "after", "before", "when", "while", "since", "until" and longer
> terms such as "from now on", "from this point forward" etc., how can we
> collapse them?
Aargh. Some of these were problems in Kash; I refused to invent separate
words for them, preferring to derive most of them from "anju"
'time,moment,period; when'.
>
> Before time T, an event happened
> Until time T, an event was undergoing
There are some oddities here--
"We left before(*until) 8 o'clock // we left before(*until) the show ended"
and--

"We stayed until (*before) midnight"  but...

"We can't/didn't/won't leave before/until ...."

Near-synonymous in: "Before/until yesterday, I thought/knew/believed...(many
verbs)...X"  I can see your punctual/ durative senses here.

Anyhow, Kash ended up distinguishing "before/in front of (position)" and
"before (in time)"; and "until" seems to mean mostly "up to the time of...."
Same with "after" (~behind =position) vs. (time)


> "While" can be used to mark that something happened at the same time or
> during something else happened: while X was happening, Y was also
> happening.
Yes; same Kash term for while/during ("at the time of..."); "since" is "from
the time of...")

> In addition there are lotsa of words for time that does not attempt too
> join clauses in any way, like "late", "last", "previous", "now", "then"...
But they do relate things in time. Kash "now" and "then" are both derived <
anju: "this time", "that time".

There seem to be two words for "late", one slightly pejorative (and borrowed
< Gwr), that means "not on time as expected", the other (native, app. <
fanan 'slow') that's more "delayed"-- some may not see any distinction :-(
but consider--

Boss to employee: You're late! (caki, < Gwr)
Employee to boss: I'll be late (fandat)
(looks like present/future distinction)

  "Late=recently deceased" is something else entirely (prakorem as vb., NOUN
re pakorem as adj.-- honorific pfx pra- + dead)

> ...etc., these could also be interesting to collapse, especially in that
> words like "last" has at least two meanings: "previous" and "final".
>
ummm, so far, only last=final. In some cases-- time words--  the "previous"
sense could be "cosa" 'gone, ago', but still, "last month" and "a month ago"
aren't quite the same.

And how about "former vs. latter"-- so far a blank in Kash; Gwr will use
"that-far vs. this", a la español. (And what about former(ly)=
previous(ly)......?

Most interesting. This post, and your previous one on conjunctions, has
provided some very worthwhile food for thought...:-)

Reply