[lojban-beginners] Re: Debug my propaganda?

["Karl Naylor" <karl.org@gmail.com>]

On 19/03/07, Turniansky, Michael <MICHAEL.A.TURNIANSKY@saic.com> wrote:

> > But consider: if this example is false, then so
> > must be "mi pu'o klama le zarci" and many similar claims.
> conversational point of view, we can take this to mean: "mi pacna le nu
> pu'o klama le zarci kei [da]" or "mi prupla fi le nu pu'o klama le
> zarci" in which case it is true whether or not it actually occurs.

I'd tend to take it that the speaker actually believes the simpler
statement true (and may correct it later if appropriate), which is of
course acceptable by my definition of truth but not by yours.  At
least we each seem to have internally consistent mechanisms for
interpreting claims :)

> But just remember, if you have no problems asserting (assuming you are
> currently an adult), "mi verba" , then you must also have no problems
> saying (with unknown truth values) "mi ninmu" because you might get a
> sex change in the future, or even "mi smacu" because you might meet a

No, I'm happy with "mi verba" because I have very good grounds for
believing that to be true at some point (specifically, I remember it
being true once).  I have no such grounds for "mi smacu" or "mi
ninmu", although we may just about stretch to allowing "mi nu'o ninmu"
if we're being generous.  So, for instance, I'd be happy to state "mi
ba ca'a sipna" but not "mi ba ca'a zvati la TIMbuktus.".

In any case it seems we need an answer from some authority to resolve
the question of whether I can truthfully and correctly say "lenu mi
tadni la lojban. cu jeftu lipavo".  How does the Lojban tense system
view events that are partially or fully in the future, or unknown for
other reasons?