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Re: [engelang] Xorban experimental tense markers


On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 11:10 PM, Mike S. <maikxlx@gmail.com> wrote:

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

Using another operator, this could be shortened to:

le li nnci nmdeki ne'ake hiki smo'e
"For two years, (past tense) something was something."

... in which "ne'a" by itself means "during something"/"meanwhile" and "ne'ake" adds a place for the duration.  It expands to:

le li nnci nmdeki [lu fu] hiki smo'e [cbnuko'eku]

Note I have given Xb "cbn" a third place not in Lojban (probably one of the rare times I would _add_ places).  The meaning of that place is the same as "li cbkpo'eki" namely the duration.  The predicate "cbn" can be considered an overlap/intersection operator between the timelines of two events.  The x3 of cbn gives the measure of the duration of that overlap.

We add x3 to provide a different sort of metric to prc and blv, namely the offset between the times of two events (which unlike cbn are regarded as points, which gives a different semantics).   This will allow us to say things like "A short time after he got home, the phone rang" reasonably easily.

Here's a list of time operators that I think might be useful so far.

je'a[ke] F1 F2
= lo fo F1 lu fu F2 cbnuko[ke]
[For some amount of time(e)] during F1, F2.

je'i[ke] F1 F2
= lo fo F1 lu fu F2 prcuko[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] before F1, F2.

je'u[ke] F1 F2
= lo fo F1 lu fu F2 blvuko[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] after F1, F2.


ne'a[ke] F2
= lu fu F2 cbnuko'e[ke]
[For some amount of time(e)] meanwhile, F2.

ne'i[ke] F2
= lu fu F2 prcuko'e[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] earlier, F2.

ne'u[ke] F2
= lu fu F2 blvuko'e[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] later, F2.


he'a[ke] F2
= lo dscrsfsno lu fu F2 cbnuko'e[ke]
[For some amount of time(e)] in the present F2.

he'i[ke] F2
= lo dscrsfsno su fu F2 prcuko'e[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] before now, F2.

he'u[ke] F2
= lo dscrsfsno su fu F2 blvuko'e[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] after now, F2.

ho'i[ke] F2
= lo dscrsfsno ru fu F2 prcuko'e[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] before now, always F2.

ho'u[ke] F2
= lo dscrsfsno ru fu F2 blvuko'e[ke]
[Some amount of time(e)] after now, always F2.

The difference between the middle three and the last five is that the former are quantified using "l-" (xorlo) and is not necessarily deictic.  The latter are mostly quantified by "s/r-" (as in standard tense logic) and are necessarily deictic.


--
co ma'a mke

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