From cowan@MAGPIE.LL.PBS.ORG Ukn Aug 3 17:15:41 1993 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Tue, 3 Aug 1993 17:15:38 -0400 Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 8363; Tue, 03 Aug 93 17:14:12 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 6952; Tue, 03 Aug 93 16:56:54 EDT Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 16:37:14 -0400 Reply-To: John Cowan Sender: Lojban list From: John Cowan Subject: Re: [long] Re: On the tense system X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Erik Rauch In-Reply-To: <9308031826.AA02188@nycenet.nycenet.edu> from "Colin Fine" at Aug 3, 93 06:15:03 pm Status: RO X-Status: Message-ID: <6s8tYubFVSH.A.SdH.my0kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org> la kolin. cusku di'e > pu'o and pu'i were in a loose sense opposite. > > (pu'i is in CAhA and means 'can and has' - ie a past event) Nope, it means "demonstrated possibility" and has nothing to do with times. mi ba pu'i klama le zarci I [future] [demonstrated] go-to the market. At some future time, I will go or will have gone to the market. The notion here is that at the time specified by the time-tense, the possibility of my going will be a demonstrated fact, either because I have already gone or because I am currently going. (If you are a determinist, I suppose "pu'i" could even signify that I will be going in the absolutely certain future.)