Subject: Re: [lojban] (from lojban-beginners) pi'e

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:01:08 EDT

In a message dated 9/14/2001 9:15:45 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> First, I disagree that referring to a day of the month without any other
> information is more common. People do talk about the past, and if they're
> referring to an upcoming date they're far more likely to use days of the 
> week
> (saying 'a week from Monday' or something if necessary) because days of the
> week are easier to keep track of.
> 

Well, there is probably data on this somewhere, so we should look it up. 
However, it is at least plausible that more of ones life is tied up in the 
next few days than in the next few years.But I suspect that you're right that 
we are more likely to talk about next Monday than about the (looks it 
up)seventeenth. I think that Lojban handles that in a different system, 
though, so it is not immediately relevant here, except insofar as it cuts 
down on the relevant use of day-of-the-month numbers, which might be enough 
to turn the tide in favor of year talk (but I doubt it -- almost every time I 
say "next Monday" someone asks "Is that the 17th?").

<You can refer to a day in YYMMDD with {no'o pi'e no'o pi'e paci}, or just
{pi'epi'e paci}. Referring to a whole year in DDMMYY is different - if you're
talking about the year as a whole, you can't even say that DD and MM have
typical values. They have *all* values. Perhaps if you stretch it this would 
be
{tu'o}.>

Interesting point (and another new one). I suppose that the values of these 
places are different in different cases, but that always happens with 
ellipses: if will happen with months on both patterns, for example. So, I 
don't see it as a telling argument against one view and for another. (zo'e} 
works fine as the "don't give a damn" value.

<In the thread (I believe in 1999 or early 2000) where the dates came up, it 
was
established that YYMMDD is much more conducive to date arithmetic. Those who
wanted DDMMYY argued that date arithmetic isn't relevant.>

Well, since some people do seem to ahve trouble with date arithmetic using 
DDMMYY, I suppose that is a factor to consider. But very few people do date 
arithmetic and most that do use tables or program to do it. It is only easy 
in Julian, which I don't suppose anyone would recommend on that basis.