Re: TECH: {loi} & {loe}

[Chris Bogart <cbogart@QUETZAL.COM>]

>First of all, I have trouble with this statement if extended tenselessly.
>I "He is a house builder" really compatible with "He never has and never
>will build any house whatsoever?"
>
>Second, note that tenseless Lojban bridi (unlike their English translations)
>are potentially any of "caa", "ka'e", "nu'i", or "pu'e".  Is "He is a house
>builder" really compatible with "There does not [tenselessly] exist any house
>that he is capable of building?"

Yes, this actually comes up on my planet all the time.  Our planet is
covered from pole to pole with houses and there's no room to put up even a
single house.  We just buy and sell and trade houses, nowadays.  But our
deeply-in-debt-and-no-wonder government continues its multibillion yortzak
program of encouraging young people to become house builders; that becomes
their profession, but the house repair people are so capable that the
builders never get the opportunity to build a house.

I'm not sure what it means to say they "could" (ka'e/nu'i) build a house.
They have the skills and materials, but they absolutely never have the
opportunity.  So I'm not sure whether to call them house-builders in Lojban
or not.  [In YortSpraak we have a special gadri just for things which are
useless but beautiful.]
                     ____
 Chris Bogart        \  /  http://www.quetzal.com
 Boulder, CO          \/   cbogart@quetzal.com

"Life is strange.  Some people get rich, others eat shit and die.  Maybe a
fat man will feel his heart burst and call it beautiful."
        - Hunter S Thompson