[tlhIngan Hol] then/now and law'/puS

[Alan Anderson]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 5:31 AM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm almost certain you'll tell me no, but because as the greek proverb goes
> "hope dies last", I'll ask anyway.
>
> Can I say
>
> {ngugh jIQup law' DaH jIQup puS} ?

Nope, that's not correct. You're close, though. I'll show you how to
fix it, and how to slightly redo the time references so they follow
the rules.

In the comparative construction A Q law' B Q puS, the A and B noun
slots can be filled by pronouns. Instead of the ungrammatical phrasing
{jIQup law'/puS}, make it {jIH Qup law'/puS}.

We don't have good guidance on how to add adverbial and timestamp
words inside the comparison. We do have examples of preceding the
entire comparison with normal contextual words and phrases, so try
this:

{ngugh jIH Qup law' DaHjaj jIH Qup puS} "At that time, I was younger
than the me of today."

{ngugh} "at that time" precedes the rest of the sentence as an adverbial.
{jIH} "I, me" fills the A noun slot
{Qup} "be young" is the Q verb of quality
{DaHjaj jIH} "today's me" or "the me of today" fills the B noun slot

-- ghunchu'wI'