[lojban-beginners] Re: Feedback on phrases

[der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>]

>>> le mi badgai sivyta'u cu ca se na'e kufra
>>> 	My jockstrap is uncomfortable.
>> {ca} insists on the present time. The English translation is more
>> general [...]
> That was intentional.  These rather silly sentences are supposed to
> be sort of ambiguous.

As I understand it (which is likely wrong in some way), "My jockstrap
is uncomfortable" does not really have a well-defined location in time;
the use of the present ("is") is more an artifact of the impossibility
of expressing that an adjective applies to a particular noun without
using a temporal verb tense than something that is an essential part of
what is being expressed.  I would hazard a guess that "My uncomfortable
jockstrap", while (because unidiomatic) not a good English expression
for this meaning, better expresses the lack of temporal location of
"le mi badgai sivyta'u cu se na'e kufra".

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