Subject: Re: [lojban] Mi za'o klama

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 10:43:06 EDT

In a message dated 00-06-15 18:20:38 EDT, xorxes writes (quoting pier):

<< >Ru'a mi za'o klama la Painvil la Ralix.

Without further context, my first interpretation is that
you are still going from R to P even though one would
expect that you no longer make that trip. For example,
if you live in R and used to work in P but you no longer
work there, then you may still be going from R to P every
day, maybe you just can't shake the habit.

Another possible context I can think of is this: the trip
from R to P normally takes 20 minutes. You left R two hours
ago but you run into a major trafic jam and so you are
still stuck on the road. So you are still going from R to P,
well past the natural ending point of the event. >>

Yes, these are two pretty good contextless thoughts, the first maybe more 
natural than the second (the goal is defined, so to speak, by destination not 
time). In both cases, the natural ending could be specified to clarify. 

This is also the case with contextualized version. I would put the second 
case -- goes on to Pineville though aiming at Charlotte -- as {mi klama la 
painvil la ralix za'o la charlyt}

<<>Did I go past Pineville and wind up in
>Rock Hill, or did I go all the way through Charlotte and find myself in
>Pineville?

I can't really get either of those meanings. If you went
past Pineville, why would you say that you are still on your
way to Pineville, or that you keep going there? It doesn't
sound right to me.>>

After the natural end (completion) of a process, the continuation is of some 
dominant activity in the process, in the case of going to, traveling -- but 
it may be described still process terms. A man who set out to build a house 
and then, when the house is built, starts building other things miles away, 
can be said to keep on building, even though he is no longer building the 
same house (a weak case, I admit, but there are surely some good ones). 
Notice that the sentence does not say he is on his way to Pineville, only 
that Pineville is the destination of his going, {za'o} then says that he has 
passed his detination (natural end point).