[87037] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Comparatives
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Trimboli)
Tue Nov 24 16:12:28 2009
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:09:22 -0500
From: David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name>
In-reply-to:
<C305E6BD33E2654DAE1F8F403247B6A6011382A8826A@EVS02.ad.uchicago.edu>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Steven Boozer wrote:
> Christopher Doty:
>>> Wait, then how do you do other aspects, e.g., "We used to be more
>>> fortunate than you, but aren't anymore"??
>
> ghunchu'wI':
>> The comparative/superlative construction is very rigid. It doesn't
>> carry aspect, qualification, honorifics, or basically anything else
>> that would go on the verb of a regular sentence. The *only* verb
>> suffix explicitly permitted is {-be'}.
>>
>> For your particular example, I would make it more specific and
>> substitute time for aspect. cha' wen maH Do' law' tlhIH Do' puS.
>> DaHjaj maH Do'be' law' tlhIH Do'be' puS.}
>
> Except for the variations provided in my previous post, the way to
> modify a law'/puS formula is to preface it with an introductory
> clause, place- or time-stamp (as ghunchu'wI' did) which I've marked
> with angle brackets:
Although not attested in canon, another common way to modify a law'/puS
sentence is to use it as the object of another sentence.
As a command:
SoH HoS law' jIH HoS puS 'e' yIqaSmoH!
Make yourself stronger than me!
Certainty:
SoH HoS law' jIH HoS puS 'e' vIHon.
I doubt you're stronger than me.
SoH HoS law' jIH HoS puS net Sov.
Everyone knows you're stronger than me.
Need:
SoH HoS law' jIH HoS puS 'e' vIpoQ.
I need you to be stronger than me.
Others are possible. You can't modify it with aspect, though, because
you're not allowed to put a Type 7 suffix on the second verb of a
sentence-as-object construction.
--
SuStel
tlhIngan Hol MUSH
http://trimboli.name/mush
