Re: [lojban] Gerunds, infinitives and other technicalities

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 1:23 PM, John E Clifford <kali9putra@yahoo.com> wrote:
>   But the types of 'nu' remain a problem,
> since so many words have (in English at least and apparently in Lojban) several
> readings, one at least, in each of two or more of the subtypes.  Maybe we need
> either to disambiguate these words or provide some other clues when the nature
> is unclear (there are obvious relations between these types and aspects, for
> example).

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that some bridi (say "ko'a
citka") could be taken as describing either an activity or a process,
and that this distinction makes an important difference. We know how
to indicate this distinction when the bridi is used as a subordinate
clause, but how do we make the distinction at the main bridi level? If
I say "ko'a citka", am I describing an activity or a process? And even
in some subordinate cases, if I say "la djan djuno lo du'u ko'a
citka", how can we tell whether what John knows is that a process is
taking place or that an activity is taking place? If I say "lo badna
poi ko'a citka ke'a", is it a banana that is being eaten as an
activity or as a process? It seems to me that if marking the
distinction between event types is important, Lojban marks that
distinction in the wrong place. It should be marked some place where
every bridi could be marked, not only some bridi in some special
syntactic environment.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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