Received: from uga.cc.uga.edu by nfs1.digex.net with SMTP id AA06911 (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for ); Sun, 1 Jan 1995 20:50:25 -0500 Message-Id: <199501020150.AA06911@nfs1.digex.net> Received: from UGA.CC.UGA.EDU by uga.cc.uga.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 7227; Sun, 01 Jan 95 20:52:19 EST Received: from UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UGA) by UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 5706; Sun, 1 Jan 1995 20:52:19 -0500 Date: Sun, 1 Jan 1995 19:22:46 GMT Reply-To: ia@stryx.demon.co.uk Sender: Lojban list From: Iain Alexander Subject: Measurements (ex ago, terse tense, etc.) X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Bob LeChevalier Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Sun Jan 1 20:50:28 1995 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu Did we not once decide that the way to express "three metres" as a distance is {li ci poi se mitre}, "seven years" as a time interval is {li ze poi se nanca} ? Mind you, that doesn't get us very far - {zu'a li ci poi se mitre} = "to the left of three metres", which doesn't make much sense. I can't even see at the moment how to make an appropriate predication, never mind contract it to a tense or at least tagged sumti. {zunle} etc. don't have any obvious place for the distance - you could probably jam one in with {la'u} or {fi'o se }, but that seems like cheating. The measurement words have only a single place for the thing being measured. And I can't find a gismu for "distance" ({nildarno}?), although {temci} works for times. How _do_ we say "The window is three metres to the left of the door"? Can we just say le canko bi'i le vorme cu mitre li ci (plus something for "to the left of") ? mu'o mi'e .i,n. -- Iain Alexander (ia@stryx.demon.co.uk)