Re: Chinese-type Questions in Lojban

[CJ FINE <cbmvax!uunet!BRADFORD.AC.UK!C.J.Fine>]

>
>
> This is a fragment of a future paper explaining how to ask questions in
> Lojban.
>
> There are two basic kinds of questions in Lojban: fill-in-the-blank
> questions and truth questions.  A fill-in-the-blank question uses one of
> various question words; the word is placed where the answer is meant to go.
> For example:
>
> 	la lojban mo.
> 	Lojban is-what?
>
> asks for a selbri to replace the cmavo "mo", and
>
> 	ti mapku ma
> 	this is-a-hat-of what?
>
> asks for a sumti to replace the cmavo "ma".
> There are also question cmavo for tenses/modals ("cu'e"), place tags ("fi'a"),
> and attitudinals ("pei").  In addition, each of the five kinds of logical
> connectives has a question word.

I hope you'll cover "xo" as well.

>
> Until now, I had always assumed that the logical-connective questions had
> no equivalents in natural languages -- which is always a dangerous assumption:
> for each grammatical feature, some language somewhere does it Lojbanically!
> It turns out that a common kind of question in Chinese exactly matches the
> logical-connective question, except that Chinese has no explicit cmavo.
>
> The question
>
> 	ni3 qu4 bu qu4
> 	you go not go
>
> means "Are you going?/Will you go?"  It is a neutral question, with none of
> the impatience of English "Are you going or not?"

Nice observation!

>
> In each case, the answerer supplies the appropriate logical connection
> cmavo.  In Chinese, these questions are limited to verbs; in Lojban, both
> selbri and sumti (and other constructions as well) can make use of the
> construction:
>
> 	do djica loi tcati ji loi ckafi
> 	you desire part-of-the-mass-of coffee [conn. ?] part-of-the-mass-of tea
> 	Do you want coffee or tea?
>
> with corresponding answers "na.e", ".enai", and "onai".  Other possible
 answers
> are:
>
> 	.e
> 	Both 1 and 2.
> 	Both.
>
> 	joi
> 	Mass-mixed-and.
> 	Both mixed together.
>

And look at these:

	ledo ckafi cupei se mixre loi ladru ji loi sakta
	Do you want your coffee with milk or sugar?

	na.o
	Either but not both

	na.a
	If with milk, then with sugar too

	do pu penmi leso'i pendo vi la bradfrd ji la lidz
	Did you meet all those friends in Bradford or in Leeds?

	bi'i
	the-interval
	All along the way

		kolin