Part 4
Within and whole: si and ki
The storm knocked a garden wall down, and the household rebuilt it. Two sentences from that morning, same wall, same verb:
phao moru si shiroka.
parent wall IPFV repair.
phao moru ki shiroka.
parent wall PFV repair.
One particle moves the work from underway to done. These are the two central views: si stands inside the event while it flows, and ki holds the event up whole, complete at the reference time.
01si: caught in the current
si presents the event from within, still unfolding:
shia si meliho.
3SG IPFV sing.
The sustained s can last as long as the breath does, a small mnemonic for a view that refuses to close. si claims one stretch of one occasion, the song as it pours. How long it lasts and how it ends are other sentences' business.
02ki: the work stands finished
ki presents the event as a completed whole:
thia ki shonela.
2SG PFV learn.
Complete at what moment? At the moment tense supplies. This is the elegant part, and it is worth saying slowly, because it gives Phi the whole territory English covers with have, had, and will have:
mia to ki nila.
1SG PST PFV see.
mia so ki nila.
1SG FUT PFV see.
Bare ki completes at the present, to ki at a past reference point, so ki at a future one. Three English constructions, one particle, and the tense you already know does the rest. When a promise needs a finish line, this is the form it takes: by the time you arrive, the bread will be baked, the wall mended, the song learned.
Practiceinside or whole
- The child is playing.
- The guests have eaten.
- I will have repaired the wall. Give the promise its finish line.
Answers: 1 lopia si wile. One occasion, caught flowing. 2 lo phemi ki nuola. The eating stands complete as of now. 3 mia moru so ki shiroka. Future reference point, event whole at it: so sets the moment and ki closes the work there.