Re: On the tense system

[Colin Fine <C.J.Fine@BRADFORD.AC.UK>]

Matthew asked for comment on
> mi na certu le pilno be la lojban. seki'u mi di'e finti bau la gliban.

It says
'I am not expert at (activity) the user of Lojban. With result me, the
following creates in Lojban"!

2 errors:
1) the x2 of certu is an activity; the x1 of pilno is an agent.
Pragmatically it probably works, but it's naughty.

The pure way of doing it is
mi na certu le nu pilno
(I would prefer lo to le)

Other ways are

mi na'e certu pilno la lojban
'I non-expertly use lojban'
or
mi na'e certu bo pilno la lojban
(which is equivalent to
mi pilno be la lojban be'o na'e certu)
"I am a lojban-using non-expert"

Note na'e rather than na. It would still be
true with na, but probably not what you want
to say:
It is not the case that I [expertly use Lojban]
i.e. including the possibility that you do not
use Lojban at all.

One more way that might work is
mi na certu tu'a le pilno be la lojban
This means
"I am not expert at some unspecified abstraction
involving the user of lojban."

2) seki'u needs a bo or else it swallows mi

So my version would be

mi na'e certu pilno la lojban .i se ki'u bo mi di'e finti bau la gliban


        Colin