Re: [lojban] translation challenge: "If today is Monday..."

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/13/2001 11:58:20 AM Central Daylight Time, cowan@ccil.org writes:

Okay, I'll play the role of Socratic victim.  What's wrong with:

ro da poi djedi zo'u da se cmene zo pavdei
   .ijo lo bavlamdei be da se cmene zo reldei/cibdei
For all days X, if X is named Monday,
   then the successor-day of X is named Tuesday/Wednesday.

In other words, it seems to me that the oddity of these sentences reflects
the fact that "today" and "tomorrow" are usually absolute in English, but
here are being applied as relative terms.  "Bavlamdei" is actually relative
in Lojban, but is most often used (in a mildly malglico way) as absolute;
here we get to use it in the "proper" way.

Item 1>  You didn't say "if" but "iff," which happens to be OK here, in fact, though not what was said/asked for.
Item 2>"today", "tomorrow", etc. are token reflexive, i.e., get their references dependent upon when the occurrence of the word in question is uttered.  I don't see exactly what is meant here by "relative" (other than "token-reflexive") and "absolute."  This use is perfectly normal in English and Lojban.