[lojban-beginners] Re: vreta

[Minimiscience <minimiscience@gmail.com>]

de'i li 10 pi'e 03 pi'e 2009 la'o fy. Luke Bergen .fy. cusku zoi skamyxatra.
> Why would a gismu have a definition like "<verb>ing"?  It seems like the
> definition should be "recline" and to get "reclining" you would have to say
> "nu vreta".
.skamyxatra

Yet another reason why Lojban is superior to English: it does not cause this
kind of confusion.

The problem is that, in English, the present participle of a verb (the form
used, among other places, in the progressive form, e.g., "Zoe is ____ing") is
the same as the gerund (the form used in a noun phrase corresponding to Lojban
"{nu}").  "Is reclining" is a verb phrase, the progressive form of "reclines,"
while "reclining" in "Reclining is easy" is a gerund used to represent the
event or activity of being one who reclines.  The second definition of
"{vreta}" reads "x1 is reclining," which is simply a slightly different way of
stating "x1 reclines."  (Theoretically, it could mean "x1 is the event of
reclining," but that would conflict with the first definition, not to mention
being annoying & useless.)  Does it make sense now?

In short, it's English's fault, not Lojban's.

mu'omi'e .kamymecraijun.

-- 
mi citka loi cidjrspageti fi'o sanmi lo cersai