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Re: [lojban] symmetrie of tenses
There are some important non-symmetrical features in the tense system -- in
Lojban as in the world ;().
For example, the inchoative need not be followed by the event abuilding,
while the perfective must be preceded by the event fading out. Something
could prevent even the most verged on impending ... event, prevent it from
happening at even the last moment. But only an event that happens has a
perfective aspect.
The time period of either external aspect need not be short: the inchoative
aspect of the American Civil War has been said to begin in 1860 or the1840s
or 1820 or 1789 or 1776 or 1609 or 1498 or 1492 or .... The same applies to
perfectives, but it is usually easier to tell (although we can be wrong about
it). We are, after all, in the perfective aspect of the Big Bang after 14
billion years or so. So neither "on the verge of" nor "has just" is a great
translation in general though each may be right in a specific case. I do
not think you can hook tensors on the aspects to say how long they last or
how deep into them you are referring.
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