Locating a Sentence's Action in Time
Saul Epstein 
Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:26:43 -0500

Hello again, everyone.

A while back, Rob and I spent several months trying to explain
certain things to each other about how one could talk about time in a
sentence. We discussed intermittently, sometimes on the list but
mostly off. And we did eventually make some progress, in that I think
by the time we got tired of it we each had some idea what the other
had been trying to say.

Here, I hope, is what could form the simple core of a system by which
a ZC speaker indicates the location in time of a sentence's action,
relative to the moment of speech. I say simple core because there's a
lot more to be said on the subject. I'd just like to get this much
laid out and ratified first.

The core consists of two parts. The first is a set of words that
indicate a general period of time relative to the moment of speech.
One of these words, when used, usually stands at the beginning of a
sentence.

 lihe  past        action related to some time fairly long ago
 lehe  precessive  action related to some time fairly recent
 lahe  present     action related to moment of speech
 luhe  successive  action related to some time fairly soon
 lohe  future      action related to some time fairly far off

These words give a sentence its tense. I said "when used" above
because a sentence can be assumed to be in the present tense if no
tense is explicitly given.

The second part is a set of infixes that locate the action more
precisely with relation to the moment indicated by the tense. These
are inserted directly into the word naming the action itself, after
the first vowel.

 -zo-  incomplete (initial)
     action begins before tense-moment and ends just
     before tense-moment, just as tense-moment begins,
     or early during tense-moment

 -pe-  complete
     action begins and ends within tense-moment

 -cu-  continuous
     action begins before tense-moment and ends after
     tense-moment

 -xe-  incomplete (final)
     action begins late during tense-moment, just as
     tense-moment ends, or just after tense-moment,
     and ends after tense-moment

 -mu-  indeterminate
     action coincides with tense-moment, but beginning
     and ending are uncertain


<lihe th'nizokh>   }
<lehe th'nizokh>   } "I had seen."

<lihe th'nipekh>   }
<lehe th'nipekh>   } "I saw."

<lihe th'nicukh>   }
<lehe th'nicukh>   } "I was seeing."

<lihe th'nixekh>   }
<lehe th'nixekh>   } "I [began|was about] to see."

<(lahe) th'nizokh>   "I have seen."

<(lahe) th'nipekh>   "I see."

<(lahe) th'nicukh>   "I am seeing."

<(lahe) th'nixekh>   "I [begin|am about] to see."

<luhe th'nizokh>   }
<lohe th'nizokh>   } "I will have seen."

<luhe th'nipekh>   }
<lohe th'nipekh>   } "I will see."

<luhe th'nicukh>   }
<lohe th'nicukh>   } "I will be seeing."

<luhe th'nixekh>   }
<lohe th'nixekh>   } "I will [begin|be about] to see."


(Note: the English glosses are approximates, and don't exactly match
the way these kinds of structures are used in casual speech.)

--
from Saul Epstein
locus*planetkc,com - www,planetkc,com/locus
"Lehe ow'phahper the's'hi surakri' the's'cha'; lahe the's'phahrka
     the's'hi surakecha'."
                                        -- K'dvarin Urswhl'at