10.21. Sub-events

Another application of non-logical tense connection is to talk about sub-events of events. Consider a six-shooter: a gun which can fire six bullets in succession before reloading. If I fire off the entire magazine twice, I can express the fact in Lojban thus:

Example 10.159.

mi	reroi	pi'u	xaroi	celgau
I	[twice]	[cross-product]	[six-times]	shoot

le	seldanti
the	projectile-launcher.

On two occasions, I fire the gun six times.

It would be confusing, though grammatical, to run the reroi and the xaroi directly together. However, the non-logical connective pi'u expresses a Cartesian product (also known as a cross product) of two sets. In this case, there is a set of two firings each of which is represented by a set of six shots, for twelve shots in all (hence the name “product”: the product of 2 and 6 is 12). Its use specifies very precisely what occurs.

In fact, you can specify strings of interval properties and event contours within a single tense without the use of a logical or non-logical connective cmavo. This allows tenses of the type:

Example 10.160.

la	.djordj.	ca'o	co'a	ciska
That-named	George	[continuitive]	[initiative]	writes.

George continues to start to write.

Example 10.161.

mi	reroi	ca'o	xaroi	darxi	le	damri
I	[twice]	[continuitive]	[six-times]	hit	the	drum.

On two occasions, I continue to beat the drum six times.