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Re: [lojban] Re: Questions
At 11:24 PM 08/07/2000 +0300, Ivan A Derzhanski wrote:
Taral wrote:
> On 7 Aug, Logical Language Group wrote:
> > At 11:02 AM 08/07/2000 -0500, Taral wrote:
> > > Question 1: How does one translate "how old are you?"
> > > into lojban? There is no pure age relation in the gismu.
>
> > Probably several ways. One is:
> >
> > le do nunjmive cu nanca xo
^li
This can just as well mean `How many years are you going to live?'.
Is pragmatics enough to show that we are only referring to the part
of the {nunjmive} that has elapsed already?
Until we come up with a way of knowing the answer to the question, "how
long are you going to live" (cf. Heinlein short story "Lifeline"), I cannot
imagine pragmatics interpreting the question that way.
> > xo selna'a do
Or {do xo nanca}? (Probably the same problem as above though.)
> > xo ni do tolcitno
This looks rather like a calque of the English.
I note that {nanla}, {nixli} and {verba} have a slot `of age x2',
so {do ma verba} might work under appropriate circumstances.
Good point.
--
lojbab lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org