From lojbab@lojban.org Mon Aug 07 22:05:34 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 9462 invoked from network); 8 Aug 2000 05:05:34 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by m2.onelist.org with QMQP; 8 Aug 2000 05:05:34 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO stmpy-2.cais.net) (205.252.14.72) by mta1 with SMTP; 8 Aug 2000 05:05:34 -0000 Received: from bob (ppp16.net-A.cais.net [205.252.61.16]) by stmpy-2.cais.net (8.10.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id e7855oQ32651 for ; Tue, 8 Aug 2000 01:05:50 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from lojbab@lojban.org) Message-Id: <4.2.2.20000808010119.00b76900@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: vir1036/pop.cais.com@127.0.0.1 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 01:03:55 -0400 To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Questions In-Reply-To: <398F1AE8.7BB0EF45@math.bas.bg> References: <200008071759.UAA19148@banmatpc.math.bas.bg> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" At 11:24 PM 08/07/2000 +0300, Ivan A Derzhanski wrote: >Taral wrote: > > On 7 Aug, Logical Language Group wrote: > > > At 11:02 AM 08/07/2000 -0500, Taral wrote: > > > > Question 1: How does one translate "how old are you?" > > > > into lojban? There is no pure age relation in the gismu. > > > > > Probably several ways. One is: > > > > > > le do nunjmive cu nanca xo ^li >This can just as well mean `How many years are you going to live?'. >Is pragmatics enough to show that we are only referring to the part >of the {nunjmive} that has elapsed already? Until we come up with a way of knowing the answer to the question, "how long are you going to live" (cf. Heinlein short story "Lifeline"), I cannot imagine pragmatics interpreting the question that way. > > > xo selna'a do > >Or {do xo nanca}? (Probably the same problem as above though.) > > > > xo ni do tolcitno > >This looks rather like a calque of the English. > >I note that {nanla}, {nixli} and {verba} have a slot `of age x2', >so {do ma verba} might work under appropriate circumstances. Good point. -- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org