Re: ZAhO and tanru

[John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>]

la .and. cusku di'e

> Is there any difference
> between {mi cao citka} and {mi ca citka}?

Yes.  "mi ca'o citka" says that at some unspecified time the process of my
eating is/was/will be in progress.  "mi ca citka" says that at the present
time some unspecified part of my eating is in progress.

> > na'e alters the meaning of the selbri itself - on some scale,
>
> Well we agee on this at least.
>
> > without necessarily referring to any of its sumti
>
> Does NAhE have sumti?

"its sumti" = "the sumti attached to the selbri", I think.

> > (which of course can make the implied scale rather ambiguous when
> > na'e is used inside a tanru)
>
> If {cukta nanmu} is "book person", then why shouldn't {cukta nae
> nanmu} be, no more and no less straightforwardly, "book non-person"?

It depends on how you read "non-person".  If you mean "something other
than a person, on some implicit scale", then fine.  If you mean "something
that is not a person [merely]", then no: that is contradictory negation.

--
John Cowan                                      cowan@ccil.org
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban.