Re: GEN: How Nick is faring

[Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>]

To John Cowan respond I thus:
# la nitcion. cusku di'e
#> (Just to amplify: I've just done Aktionsarten in semantics (states,
# activities,
#> accomplishments, achievements), and I don't think they've been taught
#> properly in Lojban, particularly as to their tense properties --- Dowty's
#> tests etc. It'd be far more useful to describe these in the terms that
#> they are described in formal semantics --- states are a kind of zasti,
#> activities a kind of gasnu/zukte, achievements a kind of binxo, and
#> accomplishments a kind of rinka. Thus djuno is a state, cadzu an activity,
#> cirko an achievement, and bapli an accomplishment.)

#This list looks a bit different from our NU list:  states, activities,
#achievements, and processes.  Is it really the same thing?

I really hope they are, and can't see how they can't be. This is a lost
of nomenclatures, and the researchers that have pushed them:

        Vendler         Aristotle       Ryle            Dowty
za'i    states          energiai        states          states
zu'e    activities      energiai        activities      activities
pu'u    accomplishments kineseis        task-based      complex changes
                                        achievements    of state
mu'e    achievements    kineseis        lucky           single changes
                                        achievements    of state

        Kenny           Mourelatos
za'i    states          states
zu'e    activities      processes                    \ occurences
pu'u    performances    developments        \ events /
mu'e    performances    punctual occurences /

And some examples of each:

States: be asleep, love, know, sit, stand, lie
Activities: make noise, roll, rain, walk, laugh, dance, walk
Achievements: notice, realize, ignite, kill, point out
Accomplishments: flow, dissolve, build a house, walk a mile

And some of the tests:

The simple present tense of a state doesn't imply habitually doing it:

I know this != mi di'i djuno la'edi'u
I run a lot = mi di'i mutce bajra
I build chairs = mi di'i zbasu loi stuzi
I lose keys = mi di'i cirko loi ckiku

You can't spend an hour doing an achievement (and states are iffy too)

?I spent an hour knowing this.
I spent an hour running
I spent an hour building chairs
*I spent an hour losing keys

You can't take an hour to do a state or activity

*I took an hour to know it
*I took an hour to run
I took an hour to build a chair
I took an hour to notice my keys

X is Y'ing implies X has Y'ed, but not if Y is an accomplishment; does
not apply to states or achievements

I am running -> I have run
I am building a chair ! -> I have built a chair

An achievement cannot be a complement of 'stop'

I stopped believing in Santa
I stopped running
I stopped building the chair
*I stopped recognising faces

Only an accomplishment can be a complement of 'finish'

*I finished believing in Santa
*I finished running
I finished building the chair
*I finished recognising faces

Only activities and accomplishments can be qualified by 'carefully'

*I carefully slept
I carefully walked
I carefully built the chair
*I carefully lost my keys

Some of these tests have obvious ramifications for Lojban use of eg. TAhE.

Like I said, in formal terms, achievements are a kind of binxo, activities
a kind of gasnu, and accomplishments a kind of rinka.

#Also, in Lojban any brivla can be realized as any event type: there is
#le pu'u cadzu, le mu'e djuno, le za'i bapli, and all are perfectly
#meaningful.

Yeah. And now that I've done Aktionsarten in class, that worries me...
Sure, we can do this conversion trick: {za'i morsi} means "dead", {mu'e
morsi} means "die", {pu'u morsi} means "kill", and I can't for the life
of me work out what {zu'e morsi} means (if it can't mean "kill"). But
what use is this flexibility, when we have far better ways of saying
all the above? I think some theory needs some beefing up somewhere...

*******************************************************************************
 A freshman once observed to me:         Nick Nicholas am I, of Melbourne, Oz.
 On the edge of the Rubicon,             nsn@munagin.ee.mu.oz.au (IRC: nicxjo)
 men don't go fishing.                   CogSci and CompSci & wannabe Linguist.
   - Alice Goodman, _Nixon In China_     Mail me! Mail me! Mail me! Or don't!!