Re: Aspect + Mood combinations

(Fixing the !*@$%&# codes in my original message)
On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 13:27:05 -0400, "Roger Mills" <rfmilly@...>
said:
> James W. wrote:
[snip]

> > Aspects: perfective, imperfective, inceptive
> > Moods: imperative, dubitative, negative, optative,
> > permissive, conditional
> >
> > Have I interpreted these correctly? And what would
> > the ones with question marks mean, if anything?
> > Are there any others that you can think of from
> > any con- or natlang examples?
>
> I suppose each A+M is also subdivided by Tense??
Yes, there are future and non-future tenses.

> >
> > combinations
> > ASPECT    MOOD        ENGLISH equivalents
> > (perf) + (imperat)    [none?]
>
> What about: "Have your report finished by noon tomorrow" ?? Sort of a
> Future
> Perf. Imperative?? Or would it be Imperf., since the report is unfinished
> at
> the time of speaking?
I will definitely look into this possibility. Thanks!

> > (perf) + (dubit)      doubted that
> > (perf) + (neg)        did not
> > (perf) + (optat)      wanted to ----
>
> Where would "have (always) doubted that...", "have not.../do not..." et
> al.
> fit in? Generic statements?
Hmmm. More thought needed on my part, obviously. For
"have (always) doubted that..." I would need some way to
express habitual action.

For "have not..." (you mean like "I have not taken the trash out
yet"?), That will require some thought. I don't know how to do that
with my current system.

> (snips)
> > (incept) + (dubit)    ??
> "beginning to doubt..., becoming uncertain that..., (it's) likely to...
> "???
"Beginning to doubt..." This could work. I like it :)

> Never having studied a Slavic language, I'm a little bit uncertain just
> how
> perf/imperf. aspects work :-((((
Well, my knowledge of anything linguistic is quite uncertain :). My
understanding is that perfective indicates a completed, single event.
I had to review on sil.org what Imperfective means:
"Imperfective aspect is an aspect that expresses an event or state,
with respect to its internal structure, instead of expressing it as
a simple whole." So I interpret that as meaning unspecified completion,
focusing more on the process of the event itself. (Which is more or
less what I thought.)

Thanks,
--------
James W.