Re: Comparatives (Difficult?!)

Den 5. jun. 2007 kl. 20.31 skrev Carsten Becker:

> Now that I have back my internet finally, I have a question
> for you: How would your conlang (or any natlang you know)
> express this sentence -- I am intersted in the sentence
> structure of course, not just the words themselves. Here is
> the sentence:
>
>  "It took five days longer than it should have taken."
Modern Urianian uses a participle construction.
Digri binju tunant megdi sa bintesat izul.
(drag-on-3s.past 5 day-dat.pl more-inst.sg 3s.gen last-stat.part.abl
desirable-sg)

Literally, "it dragged on for 5 days more than its desirable
duration". Urianian uses ablative as the relative marker.

Gaajan: Idu asuwe osag siriu jai siriuketu jusu.
(5 day-pl many-comp demand it-did-for-it demand-des-apass it-does-rel)

The -ke- formant is a desiderative aspect for the verb. And I am also
using the antipassive mood here because the judgment that "it" should
haven taken shorter time is implied to be made by someone.

The first auxiliary contains a dative implying that the duration
reported in the first clause is bigger "for" the desired one stated
in the next clause, whose auxiliary then needs the relative marker -su.

Literally: "it demanded 5 days more than it was desired to do".

There are other ways to say it though. I'd like to try one with a
subjunctive second clause as well:

Idu asuwe osag siriu jai siriu julasu.

Literally "it demanded 5 days more than it could have".

Not the exact same meaning, but it would work in the context I think.
Note that the second clause here is marked as both subjunctive and
relative through its auxiliary. I'm not sure if I should do that.
Maybe better:

Idu asuwe osag siriu jai siriula jusu.

Norwegian also does it simpler than the English:

Det tok fem dager mer enn det burde.
(3s take-past 5 day-pl more than 3s ought-past)

LEF