Re: [lojban-beginners] Re: Duration questions

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 5:29 PM, Michael Turniansky
<mturniansky@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Except that absent any other indicators (storytime or ki) that X is
> "now".  Or just plain "before" in English.  That's what I meant by
> "just before" -- "I went to the store before".

Plain "before" can be "before now" or "before then" in English too:

I went to the store before (now).
I had gone to the store before (then).

Not that that has much to do with anything, since we are in agreement
about the use of PU or FAhA. It's the parallelism that you see between
those and your use of ZEhA that still eludes me.

>>  In the usual pattern,
>> "<tag> broda" can always be expressed as "broda <tag> ko'a" by
>> choosing a suitable "ko'a". The tag always has the same effect on
>> broda, and ko'a only adds more information.
>
>  It still does.  And with exactly the same "ko'a" as is currently
> defined for all PU/ZA/VI, etc.   namely (are you ready?....) "ti".  So
> how can "ze'u ti" mean "for a long time of this?" and still mean "for
> a long time"?  Because how big/long a space/duration that "ti"
> occupies is entirely dependent on context.

Are you saying that if you say "mi ze'u limna", that means "mi limna
ze'u ti", and "ti" refers to a length of time just a little bit longer
than whatever length of time you were swimming for (whether that was a
short or a long time)? Clerly not, so you must be saying that "ti" has
to be a long "ti" when used with "ze'u ti", and probably not too long
for "ze'i ti". But this "ti", unlike the "here and now" used as
reference point for PU and FAhA, seems like a completely ad hoc
construction, built specifically for the purpose of making "ZEhA
broda" equivalent to "broda ZEhA ti", with no natural independent
existence.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Lojban Beginners" group.
To post to this group, send email to lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban-beginners+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban-beginners?hl=en.