From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Wed Mar 10 15:32:30 2010 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:32:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1NpVO9-0001ET-Q2 for lojban-beginners-real@lojban.org; Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:32:30 -0800 Received: from mail-fx0-f215.google.com ([209.85.220.215]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1NpVO5-0001DS-VR for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:32:29 -0800 Received: by fxm7 with SMTP id 7so1257184fxm.26 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:32:19 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:sender:received:in-reply-to :references:date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; bh=UY3rmINuUxyPYApgSDCH/QRVt2/ICkaJY2cq0UA4v38=; b=mYScO2IC0WH2e17VEdqr7FyBdwcf45Gr7y4wIsklO6mqH+yVZR9qZDVnnlHmYHxpyQ jXUIAdNDT1aSMu0r4qKCYTFhAEXA1NYHHGSx6wLflt0WJlyKwvW2YXQy12o0V1l6lMns QZUK1ujqOGgLJhiQ04v2ZS6NK5sDSD0u3HjYc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=Qux5jkKTj3lwXGw0ogzaZQdvYqQJouWtB9W9VAv7CY7ZtXZ8J9Sa89tdHzV2PZEsOo 848jSZ//db0kMVZ/A/9c/W++vj/nUCj/AXxSTFugYpHncCLPPI4E7IAz/3+/Ya8pHMmM ouyr+1NZkKCPuKgut1IP4+5fVaB+fVnKR6rEM= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.239.184.72 with SMTP id x8mr242544hbg.44.1268263939037; Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:32:19 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <1f1080831003101520r1e87f21cuacb4cd23fa9a2d4c@mail.gmail.com> References: <1f1080831003101520r1e87f21cuacb4cd23fa9a2d4c@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:32:18 -0500 X-Google-Sender-Auth: ba83ad9829766643 Message-ID: <12d58c161003101532q3bf8ca8exc72b1fb3c5bcc9c@mail.gmail.com> Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: Duration questions From: "komfo,amonan" To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=0016364d26a39159eb04817ab5b1 X-archive-position: 2984 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: komfoamonan@gmail.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-list: lojban-beginners --0016364d26a39159eb04817ab5b1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 6:20 PM, Ian Johnson wrote: > Do duration questions force you to make an assumption about the relative > length of the duration? That is, as I understand it a typical duration > question might be: > .i ti zdani do ze'a ma > roughly "how long have you been living in this house?", with the > expectation that the duration to come is moderate in length. (Not sure if I > should have another tense in there like {ca'o}, but that's another > question.) And yet, it seems like if the answer were, say, {lo cabdei} > (imagining the person just moved in today), that the corresponding sentence > would be: > .i ti zdani mi ze'i lo cabdei > since living in a house for a day is a pretty short time, as time spent > living in houses goes. Is there any way around this implicit assumption, > short of asking a slightly different question like "when did you move into > this house?"? > I take {ze'a} (and its kin {za}, {ve'a}, and {va}) to mean not only "medium", but also "unspecified". Others follow this usage as well, even though it's not strictly in accordance with the definition. So, {[.i ti zdani mi ze'a] lo cabdei} is a reasonable answer to the question. mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan --0016364d26a39159eb04817ab5b1 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 6:20 PM, Ian Johnson <blindbravado@g= mail.com> wrote:
Do duration questions force you to make an assumption about the relative le= ngth of the duration? That is, as I understand it a typical duration questi= on might be:
.i ti zdani do ze'a ma
roughly "how long have y= ou been living in this house?", with the expectation that the duration= to come is moderate in length. (Not sure if I should have another tense in= there like {ca'o}, but that's another question.) And yet, it seems= like if the answer were, say, {lo cabdei} (imagining the person just moved= in today), that the corresponding sentence would be:
.i ti zdani mi ze'i lo cabdei
since living in a house for a day is a= pretty short time, as time spent living in houses goes. Is there any way a= round this implicit assumption, short of asking a slightly different questi= on like "when did you move into this house?"?

I take {ze'a} (and its kin {za}, {ve'a}, and = {va}) to mean not only "medium", but also "unspecified"= . Others follow this usage as well, even though it's not strictly in ac= cordance with the definition. So, {[.i ti zdani mi ze'a] lo cabdei} is = a reasonable answer to the question.

mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan

=C2=A0
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