[lojban] Re: Potentiality

["Jorge Llambías" <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Feb 9, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Penguino <spheniscine@gmail.com> wrote:
> In English, there is a subtle, and grammatically confusing, distinction
> between the sentences "John is a potential student", which means that John
> might become a student in the future, and "John is potentially a student",
> which means that John might or might not be a student now.
>
> How is this distinction made in Lojban? [la djan. ka'e binxo lo tadni] seems
> right for the first sentence; is it right to use [ka'e] for the second: [la
> djan. ka'e tadni]?

The first one could also be {la djan nu'o tadni}, and the second one
{ju'o cu'i la djan cu tadni}.

In the second case "potenitally" seems to be used more as a discourse
marker, to show uncertainty about what might be the case. That's a
common use of adverbs in English: "John is probably/certainly/
undoubtedly/presumably/plausibly a student."

Because this is about a specific person, John, the only reason
to say he might or might not be a student seems to be uncertainty
on the part of the speaker. In another context, for example:

  mi djica lo nu ro prenu poi ka'e tadni cu ca'a tadni
  "I want every person that can be a student to actually be one."

then {ka'e} does cover everyone who is potentially a student,
whether they actually are one or not.

mu'o mi'e xorxes


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