Re: Comparatives (Difficult?!)

Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>

on 6/5/07 9:31 PM, Carsten Becker at carbeck@GOOGLEMAIL.COM wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> 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 Hebrew, I think, would say something like:


ze lakaH Hamisha yamim yoter mi=ma     she=haya    tsarikh
It took  five    days  more  than=what that=it.Pst should


AFMC Eloshtan would probably be inclined to simplify "it should have taken"
to a noun like "expectation", which would give us:


mahlak iomokol paskotuf kerehe kangall

mahla-k iomo-k-ol pa-s-k-ot-u-f     kerehe      kanga-ll
five-P  day-P-M   last.Inv-3-P-DO-4 expectation relative.to-5

'five days was the time it lasted relative to (beyond) the expectation'


In this type of construction, 'longer' or 'more,' is understood, and no
other word to that effect is necessary (or even possible, I think). 'five
days fewer' would be translated by negating the verb 'pafy', for 'five days
was the time it didn't last, relative to the expectation.'

But anyway, if you're looking to use a clause as the standard of comparison
rather than a noun, Eloshtan could do that as well:


mahlak iomokol paskotuf keregeftev kangaftuskov

mahla-k iomo-k-ol pa-s-k-ot-u-f         kere-ge-f-t-ev
five-P  day-P-M   last.Inv-3-P-Pst-DO-4 expect-Cir-4-Pst-C

kanga-f-t-u-s-k-ov
be.inferior.to-4-Pst-DO-3-P-C

Something like 'five days was the time it lasted, insofar as it was expected
(to be something...), and insofar as it was inferior to them'


Here the second clause 'it should have taken' was translated as 'it was
expected' ('it' not being a dummy subject, but referring to the thing that
took five days longer, and the verb being circumstantial, which is basically
the passive voice for NPs other than DO, in this case what would have been
the subject of a complement clause). The postposition 'kanga' is also
converted to a verb whose meaning is inverted to 'be inferior to'
(coincidentally, the first verb in the sentence is derived in the same way),
to which the original 'it' (4th person) is made the subject and 'five days'
(3rd person) the object. These two verbs are linked to the first one by
their conjunctive ending -Ov, which is historically derived from the word
for 'and,' but indicates verbs that overlap somehow, and is often closer to
'insofar as.'

--
Josh Roth

http://www4.webng.com/eshjaz/index.html

"Farewell, farewell to my beloved language,
Once English, now a vile orangutanguage."
-Ogden Nash