The Meaning of Exists (was tense outside verbs)

>Hi,
>
>On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, Gerald Koenig wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> This digression into set theory is
>> necessary to establish that the copulative, linking use of "is" does
>> not necessesarily claim existence, or being "alive". (1). "Ramachandran
>> is a great scientist" does not claim that Ramachandran or great
>> scientists exist, it claims that the unary set "Ramachandran" is a
>> subset of the set of "great scientists".
>
>Hmmm, well, strange that u say this, since u cannot be a great scientist
>without being alive. :) I opine that existence does not imply attributes,
>but the converse is true!
Hi Skrintha,
I don't want to argue this point too much on conlang as it could go far
afield. It seems to be a question that has preoccupied philosophers since
Socrates. I found a great net reference to the question which represents
each of our points of view, and more; it's 87 pages long. Check it out,
it makes fascinating reading:

http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum1998/entries/existence/

Thanks also for your comments on alternative diagrams for vector tense.
I am thinking about them.

>
>> "Einstein is no more, but his greatness lives on"
>>
>> !------------@=============>-------------*--------------->
>>                 is alive                mu
>> !------------------@====================>*--------------->
>>                      is great
>
>Cool. I am not sure whether u wd like this, but I got the following idea,
>which might not compatible with the overall nilenga design plan. You cd
>> PA Einstein is alive; E. TO MUGZU is great.
>>
>> This is the long sought unambiguous tense form.
>
>> "Einstein is alive, but no longer great".
>>
>>
>> !----------@=================*====>-------------------->
>>              is alive
>>
>> !----------------@=======>---*-------------------------->
>>                   is great
>>
>> Einstein EM alive, SU PA great.
>
>> "Einstein is no more, and is no longer great"
>>
>> !--------@==================>-------------*------->
>>               exists                      mu=now
>> !--------------@======================>---*-------->
>>                    is great
>>
>> PA Einstein exists, TO PA E. is great. (TOPA=TOP)
>>
>> Einstein did exist, he was great for part of his existence, he no longer
>> is great. [sic]
>
>Perhaps using Einstein's name has amounted to a minor sacrilege :|
No way. I will admit to being a little hypersensitive after reading some
defaming crank theories about relativity in the physics and relativity
news groups.
>
>It was presumptuous enough of me to try to make these suggestions on what
>is essentially yr project! So i shall stop here :)
I appreciate your comments. I wish others would make vector tense their
project too.

Jerry
--------------------
vector tense needs more vectors
>
>Thanks for yr comments,
>skrintha