Re: [lojban] Gerunds, infinitives and other technicalities

[Kevin Reid <kpreid@switchb.org>]

On Jul 19, 2011, at 10:18, Escape Landsome wrote:

> Hi
> 
> It must be me, but I'm not quite sure of how to handle gerunds when
> translating them into Lojban.
> 
> The problem is the following, I have two chapters whose titles are :
> 
> << Asking the Question >>
> 
> << Finding not the Answer >>
> 
> Now, the problem is that these gerunds can be understood as a way to
> assert the process of << x1 asks the Question >> and << x1 doesn't
> find the Answer >>, where x1 = zo'e  (isn't it ?)
> 
> But it is not clear what the tense import is...
> 
> Is the only thing to do to write a bridi that has x1 = zo'e ?   Or
> must I precise some more words in order to imply a distinction of
> meaning between << Asking the Question >> and << somebody asks the
> Question, but I don't care who (or, it is too obvious) >> ?

You want to talk about asking the question; not that it has been/will be asked. Therefore you want an abstractor.

Perhaps {li'i}, {zu'o} or {nu} would be appropriate.

  le nu preti         (or "le nu reibroda", per my previous message)

  le nu na facki fi le danfu

(Note that there are a variety of ways to write the latter, depending on exactly which sort of "not" you have in mind; such as finding things, but not that which is the answer, or not finding anything at all, or finding something interesting but not the answer, or finding an answer not to the Question...)

-- 
Kevin Reid                                  <http://switchb.org/kpreid/>

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