Re: [lojban-beginners] Tenses and Event Contours

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 12:19 AM, volcpitar <apeal@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> 1. Do ba'o and pu'o imply "shortly after" and "shortly before" or "any
> time after" and "any time before"?

ZAhOs are aspects, not tenses, so they are not really about "when". In
the absence of an explicit tense marker or any contextual indication
to the contrary, a bridi will normally be taken to be about the
present, so:

[nau] ba'o carvi = [here and now] it has rained
[nau] pu'o carvi = [here and now] it is going to rain

Now the "ca'o carvi" stage, the "it is raining", could be anytime
before/after the present, respectively. But just as in English you are
unlikely to say "it has rained" or "it is going to rain" if you don't
see signs that it has rained or that it is going to rain, or in some
other way the raining is relevant to the time being talked about (in
this case the present). So in practice, just from a relevance point of
view, it is more likely that you wil be describing the
aftermath/beforemath of a recent or proximate event.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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