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Re: Machine grammar and elidables
- To: lojban-list
- Subject: Re: Machine grammar and elidables
- From: cowan (John Cowan)
- Date: Mon, 20 May 91 10:27:31 EDT
- In-Reply-To: <9105172021.AA02226@bigd.cray.com>; from "bigd.cray.com!dmb" at May 17, 91 3:21 pm
Dave Cortesi writes:
> It was indeed the presence of the cu-included and cu-omitted but otherwise
> identical rules that had lead to my conclusion. Is there any semantic
> difference caused by the presence of the "cu". If not, why not eliminate
> it entirely?
In a word, pragmatics. "cu" is very powerful for sealing off complex
1st places; often the most complex places in a Lojban bridi are the first
and last (indeed, often they are the only places). By inserting a "cu",
one can often omit three or four other elidable terminators.
--
cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan
e'osai ko sarji la lojban