Re: [lojban] {detri}

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Ilmen <ilmen.pokebip@gmail.com> wrote:

• { .i detri fa li re no no bi pi'e mu pi'e re mu }
• { li pa no pi'e vo no cu tcika fo mi }

However, does the {detri} sentence actually have the intended meaning? Isn't {me'o} more appropriate than {li} for expressing dates?

I think dates (and times) are coordinates in a one-dimensional time axis, so I think {li} is right. Coordinates are numbers, not expressions. So for example the expressions "2008-05-25" and "May 25, 2008" both refer to the same date, even though they are different expressions (different me'o, same li).

In sentences such as { detri fa li re no no bi pi'e mu pi'e re mu }, it seems that the date _expression_ "2008:5:25" is first evaluated into a pure number (using some unspecified base), 

and then given to detri-x1, in which case detri-x4 seems to become completely useless, as it cannot be applied to any numeric _expression_ (as all is given to it as input is a pure number). { detri fa li re no no bi pi'e mu pi'e re mu fo ko'a } would then be about as meaningful as { li ze no no no no no cu detri fo ko'a }.

I take detri4 (or detri3 rather, since I take detri to have only three places) as the reference frame, not a place to indicate how to read the _expression_ used to refer to the detri1. Basically it should tell you what the origin and the units are. How to read the li-_expression_ is something that one must already know. Just as one knows that in "li pa no" the first digit is for tens and the second for units, one should know that in "li re no no bi pi'e mu pi'e re mu" the digits show year-month-day. If you are using some non-standard or not well-known notation to refer to a date, you would have to explain it, but basically in the same way you would have to explain any non-standard _expression_ you use to refer to anything else. I think we need to keep the date separate from the words used to refer to it. detri1 is the date, not the words used to refer to it. You could use a different _expression_ like "la'o gy May 25, 2008 gy" to refer to the same date that "li re no no bi pi'e mu pi'e re no" refers to.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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