From - Tue Jan 21 09:37:46 1997 Reply-To: "Jorge J. Llambias" Date: Tue Jan 21 09:37:46 1997 Sender: Lojban list From: "Jorge J. Llambias" Subject: A question about space tenses To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu X-UIDL: 2bca8ba18536fafbaa74320656d30113 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1551 Message-ID: I'm writing definitions in Lojban for the cmavo of selmaho FAhA, and I want to make sure that I'm understanding some of them correctly. The reference grammar says: > Special note on ``fa'a'', ``to'o'', ``zo'i'', and ``ze'o'': > > ``zo'i'' and ``ze'o'' refer to direction towards or away from the > speaker's location, or whatever the origin is. > > ``fa'a'' and ``to'o'' refer to direction towards or away from > some other point. So, would the following be correct? le nixli cu bajra fa'a le tricu The girl runs towards the tree. le nixli cu bajra to'o le tricu The girl runs away from the tree. le nixli cu bajra zo'i le tricu The girl runs from the tree towards me. le nixli cu bajra ze'o le tricu The girl runs from the tree away from me. In other words, both {zo'i} and {ze'o} are special cases of {to'o} with additional information: {ze'i le tricu}={to'o le tricu fa'a mi} and {ze'o le tricu}={to'o le tricu to'o mi}. Is my understanding correct? I can't interpret any other way that note from the refgrammar, but on the other hand, the keywords "inwards" and "outwards" suggest a different meaning: for example, as in the recent use by Don of {zo'i sisku} and {ze'o sisku} for inwards and outwards search, if I recall. So, which is it? Notice that "outwards" and "inwards" can also be obtained as {ne'ito'o} and {ne'ifa'a}, so whichever meanings {ze'o} and {zo'i} have, they are just shorthands for something else. Jorge