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Re: Aorist

la mark. clsn. cusku di'e

[discussion of "kau" applicability omitted]

I believe that it is misleading to think of "kau" as having to do with
knowledge as such:  if the main selbri were "na djuno" then it would have
to do with ignorance!  More broadly, "kau" can also be used in sentences
involving perception  "mi viska le nu dakau klama le zarci" = "I see who
is going to the store".

I haven't yet gotten a formulation of "kau"s meaning that really satisfies me.
Still trying, though.

> Important point:  "zabna" means "favorable connotation".  "zgana" is the
> predicate for "observes" (lojban have easily-confused words?  Nah.)

Woops.  valsi se srera.

>    This may be used quite generally:
>
>            la .and. rostas. sei la lojbab. .e mi na krici cu merko
>            And Rosta (Lojbab and I don't believe it!) is an American.
>
>    I would use this sentence if reporting someone else's opinion.
>
> I think there's no problem with this sentence, but you should realize that
> "sei" has a terminator "se'u", which may not be elidable.  I expect this
> one to be present more often than many other elidable terminators.

You are right.  However, before "cu" almost everything is elidable, so one
of the safer places for a "sei" construct is just before the main "cu".

> For
> reporting someone else's opinion, I'd probably use jinvi ("opine") rather
> than krici ("believe"), but that's a fuzzy distinction.

Fuzzy is right.  lojbab, can you clarify?  Both have the same place structure:
x1 believes/opines that x2 is true.

> An easier way, of
> course, is to use the attitudinal "pe'i" (I opine), with "nai" (negator) or
> better still "cu'i" (scalar neutral), thus "pe'icu'i" means "(I) don't
> necessarily opine"--a very good standard disclaimer for someone else's
> opinions.

Right.  I wanted to illustrate what you have to do to show that a third
party is also disbelieving, when "sei" is indispensable.

--
cowan@snark.thyrsus.com         ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban