Return-Path: <@segate.sunet.se:LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@BITMAIL.LSOFT.COM> Received: from segate.sunet.se by xiron.pc.helsinki.fi with smtp (Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #1) id m0sypAJ-0000ZTC; Sat, 30 Sep 95 01:48 EET Message-Id: Received: from listmail.sunet.se by segate.sunet.se (LSMTP for OpenVMS v0.1a) with SMTP id 6DBFF65C ; Sat, 30 Sep 1995 0:37:47 +0200 Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 11:43:27 -0700 Reply-To: "Peter L. Schuerman" Sender: Lojban list From: "Peter L. Schuerman" Subject: tense conversions X-To: Lojban List To: Veijo Vilva Content-Length: 2318 Lines: 46 coi I've put together a list of English-to-Lojban tense conversions that I'd like to share with the list. This was trickier than you might think. In English, many times complex verbal tenses are used to indicate things besides the simple location of events in time. For instance, constructs with "going" are used to imply intended actions. For instance, "I was going to come" means "I was planning on coming." The closest that Lojban's tense system comes to expressing this idea is to use the inchoative (pu'o): "I was on the verge of coming." This makes less sense with the future tense cmavo "ba" and perhaps it would be good to have another member of ZAhO (perhaps dji'o, from djica, "desire" or even pla'o, from platu, "plan") which means "intentive." There is also an affirmative tense, using the auxilliary verb "to do." For example, "I did go to the store" means "I in fact truly went to the store." I can't think of an obvious way of indicating this in Lojban; perhaps an event contour cmavo "xu'a" (from xusra, "assert-to-be-true") could be used. Below is my best attempt at matching common English verbal tenses with Lojbanic ones. I've tried to use the most common sense for each English tense; most of these could have different meanings, depending on context. Parentheses surround constructions where I've used proposed cmavo (xu'a, dji'o, pla'o). I'd appreciate any comments or criticisms. co'o mi'e pitr. plschuerman@ucdavis.edu ENGLISH LOJBAN I come mi ta'e klama I came mi pu ba'o klama I am coming mi ca klama I *am* coming (mi ca xu'a klama) I was coming mi pu klama I will/shall come mi ba co'a klama I will have come mi ba ba'o klama I am going to come mi ba pu'o klama (mi ba dji'o klama / mi ba pla'o klama) I was going to come mi pu pu'o klama (mi pu dji'o klama / mi pu pla'o klama) I do come (mi ca ta'e xu'a klama) I did come (mi pu xu'a klama) I have come mi co'i klama I had come mi pu pu klama