Message-Id: <199510101727.NAA05009@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Tue, 10 Oct 1995 12:58:14 EDT
Reply-To: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject:      Re: tenses
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

la goran la lojbab di'e spuda

> > I would claim that co'u citka le plise never occurred, but certainly an
> > event of eating the apple did start.
>
> .ue.ienai
> I would be very hard pressed to find an event that sa'e has no end. In
> the apple case here, na nu mo'u citka, but certainly nu co'u citka. I
> can't visualise a person forever eating the same apple.

I think lojbab meant to say that mo'u citka le plise never occurred.

Of course, as a practical matter, if someone starts eating an apple,
that event almost certainly will stop at some point, whether or not
the apple gets to be completely eaten. But that is just a practical
consideration of this particular case, it is not implied by {co'a}.

> su'a I can't
> visualise a person doing anything forever, even past his death, and past
> the destruction of the earth some billions of years later, and past the
> Gnab Gib itself if that theory proves to be correct... zo'o

How about a person doing {morsi}? Can't you visualise {ko'a co'a morsi},
without ever there being a {ko'a co'u morsi}?

Jorge