Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by NEBULA.SYSTEMSZ.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Wed, 18 Aug 1993 05:10:54 -0400 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by eli.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Wed, 18 Aug 1993 05:10:49 -0400 Message-Id: <199308180910.AA16727@eli.CS.YALE.EDU> Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 7538; Wed, 18 Aug 93 05:09:35 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 2028; Wed, 18 Aug 93 05:12:14 EDT Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 10:09:25 +0100 Reply-To: Colin Fine Sender: Lojban list From: Colin Fine Subject: Re: On the tense system To: Erik Rauch Status: O X-Status: X-From-Space-Date: Wed Aug 18 11:09:25 1993 X-From-Space-Address: @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Matthew asked for comment on > mi na certu le pilno be la lojban. seki'u mi di'e finti bau la gliban. It says 'I am not expert at (activity) the user of Lojban. With result me, the following creates in Lojban"! 2 errors: 1) the x2 of certu is an activity; the x1 of pilno is an agent. Pragmatically it probably works, but it's naughty. The pure way of doing it is mi na certu le nu pilno (I would prefer lo to le) Other ways are mi na'e certu pilno la lojban 'I non-expertly use lojban' or mi na'e certu bo pilno la lojban (which is equivalent to mi pilno be la lojban be'o na'e certu) "I am a lojban-using non-expert" Note na'e rather than na. It would still be true with na, but probably not what you want to say: It is not the case that I [expertly use Lojban] i.e. including the possibility that you do not use Lojban at all. One more way that might work is mi na certu tu'a le pilno be la lojban This means "I am not expert at some unspecified abstraction involving the user of lojban." 2) seki'u needs a bo or else it swallows mi So my version would be mi na'e certu pilno la lojban .i se ki'u bo mi di'e finti bau la gliban Colin