meaning of bridi without tense markers (was Re: question

[Peter Moulder <reiter@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx]

Bob LeChevalier-Logical Language Group <lojbab@lojban.org> writes:

> From: Bob LeChevalier-Logical Language Group <lojbab@lojban.org>
> 
> At 02:33 PM 7/27/99 -0400, Spigot wrote:
> >From: Spigot <spigot@neuron.net>
> >
> >i'm trying to understand CAhA, its tricky. the book sayson pg 243
> >that "lojban bridi without tense markers may not necessarily refer
> >to actual events: they may also refer to capabilities or potential
> >events."

> > [Goes on to question whether "lo ninmu cu nanmu" and "lo'e glipre
> > cu xabju le fi'ortu'a" are in fact paradoxes.]

> You can stretch potential tenses to such extremes, but the real
> examples are things like "inflammable", or to refer to someone being
> a swimmer, even though they are not actually in the water right now
> paddling.

I think the best way of understanding bridi without tense markers is
not to speak of potential, but to say that the stated relationship
holds somewhere in time and space. This is also the easiest way of
converting to logical statements (e.g. so that a computer can make 
sense of it), and is much better defined than the concept of "potential".

This interpretation makes "la klim limna" (Klim is a swimmer / Klim
swims) true, whereas one cannot claim that "lo'e glipre cu xabju le
fi'ortu'a" unless one is claiming something extraordinary about the
future.

The discussion about "lo ninmu cu nanmu" raises an interesting
question. Does that statement claim that something is simultaneously
ninmu and nanmu? In order to use the description "lo ninmu" as
opposed to say "le ninmu", does the entity have to be ninmu for the
whole of the time that we're claiming it to be nanmu? Are we saying
"some X, TimeSet: ninmu(X, TimeSet) & nanmu(X, TimeSet), or are we
merely saying "some X, TimeSet1, TimeSet2: ninmu(X, TimeSet1) &
nanmu(X, TimeSet2)"?

Btw, "inflamable" already expresses its "potentialiality" through the
-able suffix, i.e. the potentiality is part of the meaning of the word
(whether we're talking about "inflamable" or "jelca") rather than
through tense.

pjm.