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Re: [lojban] Opposite of za'o



la ivAn cusku di'e

I'm not quite sure I know what you mean by `mirror'. There is
a reason for the current asymmetry of even contours, and it is
the fact that causality works forward in time.

I don't dispute that of course. What word should I use, "dual"?
It is certainly a duality relationship, much like the
relationship between "necessary" and "possible", or the
relationship between "all" and "some", or between "and"
and "or". In all of these we have X = 'not Y not' for
some suitable use of 'not'. I understand X and Y to be duals,
but I seem to recall someone objecting to this term in the
past as well.

This is why a
process can have only one kind of beginning but two kinds of end,
or a total of three points that can define the contour (leaving
aside temporary pauses and resumptions):

{co'a}: event brings forth process
{mo'u}: process brings forth event
{co'u}: event discontinues process

There doesn't seem to be a vacancy for a fourth point. (Surely
it is not `process discontinues event', because events can't be
discontinued, they just happen. By `event' here I mean a point
event, also known as an achievement.)

If we can make a distinction between "event discontinues process"
and a "process brings forth event", I don't see why we can't
distinguish "event brings forth process" from "process leaves
event behind", distinguishing a mere circumstantial start from
an actual birth or origination.

> >`Is dinner ready? -- No, it's still cooking.'

What I'm trying to say is that the question (formulated as it is)
brings up a possible world in which completion has been attained,
thus either {ba'o broda} or {za'o broda} holds (depending on
whether the associated activity has been discontinued after having
brought about its culmination), and the answer states that in fact
it is {ca'o broda} that holds and {ba'o/za'o broda} do not.

Ok, I see. Then "still" in this case indicates that the
activity is occurring beyond the end point postulated
by the question. An externally imposed culmination more
than one intrinsic to the process.

> >I have washed the car, but I have not yet walked the dog.
> >i mi ba'o lumci le karce i ku'i mi pu'o dzugau le gerku

It's the information structure (the location of the focus
of the utterance). What the Lojban is failing to say is
`... but as for {dzugau le gerku} [topic], I'm {pu'o} [focus]
that part'. In contrast to, that is, the {ba'o} in {ba'o
lumci le karce}; also in contrast to some other (hypothetical)
situation in which {ba'o dzugau le gerku}.

Maybe the way to get that would be:

i mi ba'o lumci le karce i mi pu'o ku'i dzugau le gerku

co'o mi'e xorxes


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