Message-Id: <199308161912.AA14785@eli.CS.YALE.EDU>
Date:         Mon, 16 Aug 1993 15:08:38 EDT
Reply-To: "Robert J. Chassell" <bob@GRACKLE.STOCKBRIDGE.MA.US>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU>
From: "Robert J. Chassell" <bob@GRACKLE.STOCKBRIDGE.MA.US>
Subject:      Re: Still a few thoughts about ZAhOs
To: Erik Rauch <rauch>
In-Reply-To:  <9308161824.AA05796@albert.gnu.ai.mit.edu> (message from Jorge
              LLambias on Mon, 16 Aug 1993 14:21:23 EDT)
Status: O

   Presumably, Paul's coming to damascus has long ago _left_ its ba'o
   stage too,

No! Right now, this very minute, Paul's going to Damascus is in {ba'o} state.

Please remember, the ZAhO tenses are *different* from English and
*different* from the other Lojban tenses.  They are an attempt to
emulate, (cleanly, without cruft, and in an interesting fashion) some
ways of dealing with events/states that are present in some
non-English languages.  They are not *time* tenses in the way English
speakers think of them, but are best described by the term that is
used for them:  event contours.

It is a happy accident that you can often translate event contours to
English time tense in a sufficiently accurate manner that you have
communication.  But non-stilted translations can be innaccurate and
misleading.  If you want to be accurate, say something like "Paul's
going to Damascus is in an aftermath state."  As soon as you express
the translation like that, it is clear that you have not left the
aftermath state.

    Robert J. Chassell               bob@gnu.ai.mit.edu
    Rattlesnake Mountain Road        bob@grackle.stockbridge.ma.us
    Stockbridge, MA 01262-0693 USA   (413) 298-4725