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Re: Comparatives (Difficult?!)

From:Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>
Date:Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 15:28
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