Forwarding for Mark Shoulson and his deranged mailer

[cbmvax!uunet!MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU!pucc.PRINCETON.EDU!nsn]

From: Mark E. Shoulson <shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 91 09:16:14 EDT
To: nsn%MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
In-Reply-To: nsn%MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu's message of Thu, 10
 Oct 1991 11:56:59 +1000
Subject: Miscellanea



Another thing about John's discussion of Lojban possessives, and the
possessive's in general: Although the typical example of an inalienable
possessive is "le birka po'e mi" (the arm inalienably-possessed-by me), One
should note that "birka", like most words which are likely to be subject to
inalienable possession, has a place for the possessor, so I'd use "le birka
be mi".  Use the Place Structures, Luke ((tm) Lojbab).  In fact, it's a
rare word that I can find which is likely ever to need "po'e" (except
perhaps in a hyperbolic sense) which doesn't already have a place.  This
doesn't mean we don't need po'e; things still do exist and will pop up.

I, too, have trouble with the distiction between "sei" and "to", but I'm
working on it.  The real problem I have with the grammar involves all the
connectives; I'm unsure as to how they all work. (I understand GIhA, A,
JOI, and JA, but I'm not sure which forethoughts do what).  And I still
wonder why you can have "nagi'a" but not "naga" (or "nagi").  More on that
when I've made sense of my questions.

And a free bonus complaint:  How come there's a gismu for "curse" (dapma),
but not one for "bless"?  Call me prejudiced, but I'd much rather see a
gismu for "bless" and need to use "to'e" to get a "curse" selbri (cf.
Esperanto "beni" vs. "malbeni").  Seems more natural to me.  Any
suggestions?

~mark