From lojbab Fri Jul 19 02:52:51 1991
Return-Path: <lojbab>
Message-Id: <m0k0ohL-0002IjC@snark.thyrsus.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 02:52 EDT
From: lojbab (Bob LeChevalier)
To: lojban-list
Subject: response to art protin on 'nu'
Status: RO


If I understand Art's question, he is asking why people use "nu" instead of
other abstractors, including "za'i".

"nu" is the generalized event/state abstractor.  It is usable whenever the
speaker does not wish to be specific (or doesn't care to think out) which of
the more specific members of selma'o NU might apply.  The four more specific
members correspond to the Aristotelian categorization of events into 4 types:

events
   processes
   activities
   states
   achievements

The example I use for these is running

The process of running consists of putting one foot in front of the other
at a certain rate, with a certain gait, and over a period of time, such as
a race, there may be other evolutionary stages in the process.

The activity of running sees a period of running as broken down into a bunch
of smaller activities of running,all more or less alike, finally getting down
to some unreducible unit of running activity, such as a single pace.

The state of running is even less detailed.  The state of you running has a
beginning (usually) and an ending (usually), but is seen within as a uniformity
unbroken.

The achievement of running is a point event.

There are times when you wish tyo make these distinctions.  But usually there
is no need, because the composition of the running event is not relevant.

Now, people, anyone want to try to explain how these four subclasses of events
apply to the event of sleeping, generally spoken as "nu sipna".  True, we
USUALLY think of sleeping as a state - but Lojban frees you from that constraint
allowing you to think of sleeping as an activity or a process.

lojbab