L17-02

Chinese and Russian: event as a whole

In Chinese and Russian you can easily distinguish between an event still going on (imperfective), and a verb indicating that an event is viewed as a whole (perfective).

When in English we say I have spoken to the doctor, we are also indicating that we have now finished doing so — we are after the end of the event. When we say I am speaking to the doctor, on the other hand, we are also indicating that we are in middle of the event: the event is continuing, and is not yet over.

Chinese uses the particle 了 （le） to express this perfectivity.

To explicitly express perfectivity in Lojban we use the preposition co'i, which treats an entire event, from the beginning to the end as one single point:

mi pu zi co'i penmi lo dotco prenu I have recently met a German person.

A little while ago, I was at the point in time where i met a German person.

penmi = x₁ meets x₂ at location x₃

Spanish: this, that, that over there

este, ese, aquel

Spanish: estar and ser

The difference is usually idiomatic and is related to the verbs being used.

When it's a long term happiness you can say {mi ru'inai gleki}, with describing the current situation {mi ca gleki} or even {mi ca jarco lo ka gleki} (I demonstrate my happiness). When (nonsense but still) you were just born happy and will be happy forever then it'd be {mi se jinzi lo ka gleki}. As for feelings it'd be {mi cinmo lo ka gleki}. The simple {mi gleki} is just vague in this regard. Also "ser" might be expressed with {mi me lo gleki} (I am one of the happy ones). There is a lot of philosophy here. Usually in Lojban we just rely on what we mean, not on how it is expressed in a particular language. However, i just gave you some alternatives