[lojban-beginners] Re: grammar terms

["Jorge Llambías" <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 6/25/08, Vid Sintef <picos.picos@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What are Lojban words for "tense" (time/location), "aspect", "modal",
> and "place structure"?

There aren't any established ones. {tersu'i stura} could be used for
"place structure".

For the others, you need to distinguish the normal meaning of these
words as used generally in linguistics from the often warped sense as
used with respect to Lojban.

> Can tense (FAhA, VEhA, ZEhA, VIhA, VA, ZI, PU, ...) & aspect (ZAhO,
> TAhE) & modal (BAI) be said to be the main categories of sumtcita?

If tense specifies the when (and by extension the where) of an event,
then VEhA, ZEhA and VIhA don't really belong in "tense". They are more
like aspect in that they specify properties of the event independently of
when/where it takes place. {nau} could also belong in "tense", but the
other member of CUhE is more general.

I imagine that "modal" was first used for CAhA, not for BAI. That corresponds
better to what "modality" means in linguistics. BAIs have nothing to do
with modality. At some point someone must have misused "modal" to refer
to BAIs and somehow it stuck.

> Why were the two tense selma'os "ZI" & "PU" chosen instead of "ZA" &
> "BA"? (The latter pair seem more consistent with the other tense
> selma'os and easier to memorize/remember.)

Because.  :)

> Does the word "cnima'o" mean the attitudinals in general (UI1, UI2,
> UI3, ...) or just UI1?

According to jbovlaste, attitudinals in general. UI1 contains several
indicators that are not about emotions, so it doesn't really make a
natural "cinmo" class.

mu'o mi'e xorxes