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Re: [engelang] Xorban experimental tense markers


On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 4:36 PM, selpa'i <seladwa@hidden.email> wrote: 

The other question is about numbers that fill places like nanca2. I
don't think

le fe smo'e la nmpa nnceka

makes much sense. It means "Some event E, something that is one, such
that E is one thing years long." or something like that.
So how would you say "Event E is one/two years long"?

Isn't that pretty much a direct translation of the way Lb would do it?  Why couldn't Xb "la nmpa" stand for Lb "li pa"?
 

la nnca le nmpeka

seems wrong too. Help?

I assume you meant "le fe smo'e la nnca nmpeka"?  That would be "The situation was one thing lasting some years."  That assumes that the Xb rule that nnca = nncako'e.  If we assume the Lojban rule then nnca = li nmpi nncaki, giving us "The situation was one thing lasting one year."


On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 5:58 PM, selpa'i <seladwa@hidden.email> wrote: 

Am 14.10.2012 23:30, schrieb Jorge Llambías:

> le fe smo'e la nnca nmpeka

Okay, but isn't that a bit weird? Suppose something is two years long,
then that event isn't two things that are each years, it's *as long as*
one thing that is two years long.

la nnca nmra'aka
? I'm two years.

"I am two things lasting some years".  I don't know... perhaps a truck driver of some years, and a Lojban enthusiast of some years? Yeah, it's a bit weird.


But a person can't be a year... Do I misunderstand the numeric
predicates? Right now it just seems like a type error. It's like saying
"I am two tables", except it seems even worse. Please explain.

I think that you're misunderstanding "nanca"... or maybe I am?  Either of which I take as a bad indicator for that predicate, more than anything.


On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 6:15 PM, Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@hidden.email> wrote: 
On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 6:58 PM, selpa'i <seladwa@hidden.email> wrote:
>
> la nnca nmra'aka
> ? I'm two years.
>
> But a person can't be a year...

I have no problem with "mi nanca li re" in Lojban.

Does that mean you wish to handle measurements the same way in Xorban?  I think the whole point of Lojban having these place structures in which one of the arguments is a real number is to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.  To be blunt, the SWH is only of marginal interest to me.  If it's okay with everyone else, I'd just assume hose some of this weird syntax out of the barn and replace it with something like ("cbkp" = cabyku'e).  What's your thoughts on defining measurement words so that the place structure is "x1 is the [unit of measurement]"?

la fa smo'e li nnci nmdeki hiki cbkpaki.
The situation lasted/persisted for two years.

Take this as another straw poll.

 
>Do I misunderstand the numeric
> predicates? Right now it just seems like a type error. It's like saying
> "I am two tables", except it seems even worse. Please explain.

Well, I suppose we could distinguish counting numbers from measuring
numbers, but I would rather do it with a modifier than with the basic
number word. In general I wouldn't mind saying that a count is just a
special type of measure.

co ma'a xrxe

I think the distinction is built into the meaning of the thing being numbered.  "Three cats" means three atomic members of the set of cats (and nothing else), and "two years" means a duration of time totaling two years.

--
co ma'a mke

Xorban blog: Xorban.wordpress.com
My LL blog: Loglang.wordpress.com