new use for bi'u: marks new information

[John Cowan <cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!cowan>]

I propose that bi'u, explained in JL as a forethought de-emphasizer of a
single word, be moved to selma'o UI and used as a "new information" flag.
One of the current problems with Lojban is that a speaker may refer to
someone as "le prenu", perhaps assigning a ko'a-series pro-sumti.  Later
in the same or another speaker's remarks, the phrase "le prenu" appears
again.  Is this the same or another?  There's no way to be sure.

All languages have ways of expressing this distinction.  English uses
its articles ("A man went to the store.  Later, the man..."); Russian uses
word order; Japanese, particles.  Under this proposal, "le prenu" would
be taken to refer to the same person, whereas "lebi'u prenu" would signal
the introduction of a new person.  Like all UI particles, "bi'u" would be
optional and would have no influence on the grammar; when attached to a
structure-opening cmavo such as "le", its influence would extend over the
whole structure "le prenu [ku]".

Naturally, "bi'unai" would be available for explicitly tagging old information.

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