From jimc@MATH.UCLA.EDU Thu Aug 03 09:59:48 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 17904 invoked from network); 3 Aug 2000 16:59:47 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by m2.onelist.org with QMQP; 3 Aug 2000 16:59:47 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO simba.math.ucla.edu) (128.97.4.125) by mta1 with SMTP; 3 Aug 2000 16:59:47 -0000 Received: from localhost (jimc@localhost) by simba.math.ucla.edu (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id e73GxlN00402 for ; Thu, 3 Aug 2000 09:59:47 -0700 X-Authentication-Warning: simba.math.ucla.edu: jimc owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 09:59:47 -0700 (PDT) To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Beyond Whorf: "things," "qualities," and the origin of nouns and adjectives In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII From: "James F. Carter" On Wed, 2 Aug 2000, Jorge Llambias wrote: > You wouldn't say in English that the bottle contents are > still bottle contents when outside of the bottle, at least > not for long. Would you say that {se botpi} are still {se botpi}, > perhaps being the contents of the empty set? "Add a can of (our product) to your car's gasoline and /it/ will do wonders for your engine." "It" was formerly in the can, but while it's doing wonders for your engine, which takes several days, it's outside. In English we play fast and loose with tenses. A pedant would say: "...and the former can contents will do wonders..." But I'm willing, at least in this context, to leave off "former" and accept the substance as being a "canful" or "contents of a vessel" even though it's long gone from its container. James F. Carter Voice 310 825 2897 FAX 310 206 6673 UCLA-Mathnet; 6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555 Internet: jimc@math.ucla.edu (finger for PGP key) UUCP:...!{ucsd,ames,ncar,gatech,purdue,rutgers,decvax,uunet}!math.ucla.edu!jimc