[tlhIngan Hol] Why can't I say..

[André Müller]

A "time stamp" only marks a point in time, you can use words meaning
"today", "on Monday", "in 2 years", etc. But in {DIS law'} you are not
talking about a reference point in time, but about a long duration during
which you did something. So {qaStaHvIS ...} is the correct option.

Now you might argue that "in 2 years" and "(during) many years" both refer
to quite broad time spans and not necessarily to *points* in time, but for
"in 2 years" there is no duration specified, while "many years" explicitly
refers to a duration.

{ben law'} 'many years ago' would stand alone without a {qaStaHvIS} before
it.

- André

2016-11-08 11:51 GMT+01:00 mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com>:

> Assume I want to write: "many years I've been tickling the cat".
>
> If I stop and think, what most people here are expecting to see, I
> then I would write:
>
> {qaStaHvIS DIS law' vIghro' vIqotlh}.
>
> However, I really can't see the reason why I cannot write:
>
> {DIS law', vIghro' vIqotlh}.
>
> Is this wrong ? And if it is, could someone be so kind as to explain why ?
>
> qunnoH jan puqloD
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>
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