From lojbab Sat Mar 6 22:55:39 2010 Subject: TECH: Minor Semantic Change TENSE #1 To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu From: lojbab Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 13:56:41 -0500 (EST) Cc: lojbab (Logical Language Group) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 1800 Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Mon Mar 21 13:56:41 1994 X-From-Space-Address: lojbab Message-ID: TENSE #1 CURRENT LANGUAGE: The all-of-time interval cmavo "ze'e" is not meaningful with any other tense form, because anything that is eternal cannot be moved around in time. PROPOSED CHANGE: Assign meaning to the currently grammatical, but unused, forms "ze'epu", "ze'eba", and "ze'eca". The first will mean the semi-infinite interval stretching from the reference point (the present, by default) into the infinite past. The second will mean the semi-infinite interval stretching from the reference point into the infinite future. The third will mean the whole of time, as currently. Simple "ze'e" can mean any of these three, dependent on context, as usual. RATIONALE: "ze'e" is most often used with a "roi" form: 1) mi ze'e[ca] reroi klama le zarci I [whole of time] [twice] go to the store. I go to the store exactly twice. The exactness comes in because all Lojban quantifiers are exact, unless words of approximation are used. The effect of the "ze'e" is that I go to the store only twice, ever, whereas with no "ze'e" the sense is that I go to the store twice within an interval which is specified by context (today, e.g.) Under the proposal, "ze'e" would need to be "ze'eca" for the same level of specificity, although bare "ze'e" could still be interpreted as "ze'eca". 2) mi ze'epu reroi klama le zarci I [semi-infinite past interval] [twice] go-to the store. I went to the store twice. This asserts that I have gone to the store twice before now, but says nothing about how many times I might go in future. Again, "ze'epu" could be abbreviated to just "ze'e" where there is no danger of confusion. "ze'eba" would mean that I will go twice, saying nothing about the past. -- John Cowan sharing account for now e'osai ko sarji la lojban.