Re: [lojban] Eating glass, events, and rape

["Mark E. Shoulson" <mark@kli.org>]

>From: pycyn@aol.com
>Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 22:17:18 EDT
>
>
>In a message dated 00-09-12 17:24:40 EDT, mark writes:
>
><< "I can eat glass; it doesn't hurt me" ... The Lojban
> answer has been there for quite a while, and reads:
> 
> mi ka'e citka loi blaci .i la'edi'u na xrani mi  >>
>
>Careful.  The perversity of English is such that, for some verbs, "can" means 
>"actually do,"  e.g., "I can see clearly now" and so for.  In this case, I 
>suspect that this means "I have actually eaten glass on at least one occasion 
>and it (that particular act) did not hurt me."  
>The point about {l... nu} is probably well taken, though in this case {pino 
>lo...} works fine.  

I'm presuming that someone actually means this, and so {pu'i} might in fact
be correct, but then again {ka'e} is silent on the realization of the
potential... and so might the English be.  I can live with {ka'e}, the
emphasis here may indeed be the ability to eat glass hurtlessly.  It could
be, anyway.  I understand the distinction you're making, though.

I didn't make up the original version, btw.

~mark