[lojban] Re: Time duration issues.

[Robin Lee Powell <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 07:29:21AM -0800, Jorge Llamb?as wrote:
> --- 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}. 

Oh, yes.  Sorry.

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

I am.

> > 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.

<nod>

> 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>

Umm, see yeah.  That would be the solution I don't like.

-Robin

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