Re: habitual/typical

[bob@GNU.AI.MIT.EDU]

   > {na'o} Typically -  standard measured or understood by, i.e., referent
   >                     tends to be the experience of other entities
   >                     similar to the entity concerned.
   >
   >         lo mlatu na'o kalte loi smacu
   >         A/The cat typically hunts mice.

   I assume that "the entity concerned" refers both to ...
   the cat and the mice ...

Good point!

It turns out that John Cowan's mechanism of Imaginary Journeys will
help.

  * For {na'o}, you travel to and observe instances of hunting/being
    hunted in which other sumti are involved

  * For {ta'e}, you travel to and observe past time instances in which
    the same sumti are involved.

Let's try this using Verb-Subject-Object sequence, as a heuristic to
unsettle us.  This makes it easier to see "the entity concerned" as
being the whole bridi, i.e., the ecological relationship among
hunting, cats, and mice.

   >         na'o kalte fa lo mlatu loi smacu

   Hunting is a typical relationship between cats (x1 or hunter) and
   mice (x2 or prey).

We look at other cats and other mice and other instances of hunting.
This works, but you do have to look at the whole bridi.

Now, let's try `habitually' in that utterance:

   >         ta'e kalte fa lo mlatu loi smacu

Here we have to look at the hunting and at the cat and its previous
experience and at the mouse and its previous experience (or the
plurals of these, or the `Mr. Mouse' entity).  This works, too.

    Robert J. Chassell               bob@gnu.ai.mit.edu
    25 Rattlesnake Mountain Road     bob@grackle.stockbridge.ma.us
    Stockbridge, MA 01262-0693 USA   (413) 298-4725