From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Sun Feb 10 05:51:16 2008 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:51:17 -0800 (PST) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.68) (envelope-from ) id 1JOCaS-00061V-BM for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:51:16 -0800 Received: from fg-out-1718.google.com ([72.14.220.152]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.68) (envelope-from ) id 1JOCaJ-00061G-Va for lojban-list@lojban.org; Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:51:16 -0800 Received: by fg-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id e12so3391346fga.0 for ; Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:51:02 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=SL1ZH5k8LEj/FUP2wYzSq6OYrsfH+JzKU/tnwtY/xOI=; b=hEwAMFCDoczChCKN3xlXa5JjTpqsEaps1ZDanqhJBQikxac4amrylHb1u9YGC6kvfiXuEU6atxacnokxZqtC7N4TS3eE17nf6FNVeAJ8qRrXW/DMhI7k3gFw+kcJswVeyz0sZmoeaNPhE/lQ8vZxuWT1AuL2bCIN9QsShsC/aU4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=AxFiT5NtrI8sJFImLiB+HjeV/6x0bt13m4WajiVfkQP5IturpXM8aM090xpDZZkOwRN1nOxQIZgNRWM8WZtOGx/UZj9yBn5LdIX3qlXS2z8TLLaFdZAxPje+w3FiGmK57i7wDYaGeDDTPS3VTqGv7U0RuU0wSmSXkmTEZxN+dLY= Received: by 10.86.89.4 with SMTP id m4mr14019848fgb.45.1202651462399; Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:51:02 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.86.33.18 with HTTP; Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:51:02 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <925d17560802100551n1e4edeb6n9486aec6438f013f@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:51:02 -0300 From: "=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jorge_Llamb=EDas?=" To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: Potentiality In-Reply-To: <97f5058c0802090838k38beef7arec3e6220db49a91d@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <97f5058c0802090838k38beef7arec3e6220db49a91d@mail.gmail.com> X-Spam-Score: 0.0 X-Spam-Score-Int: 0 X-Spam-Bar: / X-archive-position: 14163 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: jjllambias@gmail.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list On Sat, Feb 9, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Penguino wrote: > In English, there is a subtle, and grammatically confusing, distinction > between the sentences "John is a potential student", which means that John > might become a student in the future, and "John is potentially a student", > which means that John might or might not be a student now. > > How is this distinction made in Lojban? [la djan. ka'e binxo lo tadni] seems > right for the first sentence; is it right to use [ka'e] for the second: [la > djan. ka'e tadni]? The first one could also be {la djan nu'o tadni}, and the second one {ju'o cu'i la djan cu tadni}. In the second case "potenitally" seems to be used more as a discourse marker, to show uncertainty about what might be the case. That's a common use of adverbs in English: "John is probably/certainly/ undoubtedly/presumably/plausibly a student." Because this is about a specific person, John, the only reason to say he might or might not be a student seems to be uncertainty on the part of the speaker. In another context, for example: mi djica lo nu ro prenu poi ka'e tadni cu ca'a tadni "I want every person that can be a student to actually be one." then {ka'e} does cover everyone who is potentially a student, whether they actually are one or not. mu'o mi'e xorxes To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.