[lojban] Re: Time duration issues.

[Jorge "Llambías" <jjllambias2000@yahoo.com.ar>]

--- Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> A long-standing issue with the language has been people wanting to
> say "I spent 5 minutes walking to the market" with a sentence of the
> form "mi klama lo zarci ZI lo mentu be li mu", where VA is some
> sumtcita.

That would be {ze'a}. 

I don't think durations/extensions (ZEhA/VEhA) have been much of
an issue. You're probably thinking of displacement magnitudes (ZI/VA).

> Many of use have been using ZI, such as "mi klama le zarci zi lo
> mentu be li mu", but that apparently causes problems.  I can't
> actually remember what problems it causes; can someone chime in on
> that?

{mi klama le zarci zi lo mentu be li mu} would be "I went to the market
five minutes ago" or "I'll go to the market five minutes from now"
(assuming the reference point is the present, otherwise "five minutes
before/after X"). You would normally add {pu} or {ba} unless it was
clear which one you meant.

The problem this causes is that {vi} is not normally used this
way. {vi lo mitre be li mu} is not usually used for "a mere five 
meters away", as it should be, but for "at the five meter thing",
which should really be {bu'u lo mitre be li mu}.

See more about this here:
<http://www.lojban.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=BPFK+Section%3A+Distance>

mu'o mi'e xorxes



		
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