Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 14:06:11 -0700
From: Chris Bogart <cbogart@QUETZAL.COM>
Subject: Re: Suggestions?
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
To: Veijo Vilva <veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI>
Reply-to: Chris Bogart <cbogart@QUETZAL.COM>
Message-id: <01HKVQ8CLXCM0001IV@FIPORT.FUNET.FI>
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 1520
Lines: 41

>la kris cusku di'e
>> 1) How do you say "seven years ago"?

Xorxes:
>I like {puza lei ze nanca}.
>
>(Or puzi, or puzu, depending whether seven years is a short time or a long
>one in the context.)
>
>As you say, {pu lei ze nanca} takes seven years as a reference, and sends
>you to the past of that, the seven years are not taken as a length of time,
>but as a starting point.
>
>On the other hand, the complement of {puza} is a specification of the
>length {za}. {pu} sends you a length {za} towards the past, starting
>from the here and now.

Why?  I thought the sumti tagged by a tense was *always* the starting point
for the journey.  Shouldn't "puza lei ze nanca" mean "a medium period of
time before the seven years"?

Similarly, would "va lei ze mitre" mean "seven meters away" or "a medium
distance away from the mass of seven one-meter-long-things"?

lojbab wrote:
>I do this with "pu (or pu'o) le puzi nanca zemei"

This is a little better - before the recent seven years, although da'i if
the well-known "Seven Years of the Dragon" ended two years ago, this could
be interpreted as meaning "nine years ago".

>or ca le prulamji nanca zemoi

I like this the best, although they're *all* kind of wordy.  I may coin a
lujvo...

  ____    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  \  /    Chris Bogart          ftp://ftp.csn.org/cbogart/html/homepage.html
   \/     Quetzal Consulting    cbogart@quetzal.com
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~