Re: TEXT: Re: TEXT: Imagist

[Mr Andrew Rosta <ucleaar@UCL.AC.UK>]

Colin writes:
> And replies to me:
> ++++++++++>
>  I have piho down as a rafsi for pipno "piano" - I meant
> typing = piano writing.
> >++++++++++
>
> .u'uro'e do na.e mi srera

How does "na.e" work?
pau ma srera

> ++++++++++++>
> In my rafsi list "xem" is the rafsi assigned to "xe".
> >++++++++++++
> As John has just explained in another mailing, that has
> now changed to 'xel', but several people (including me) thought it
> was already 'xel'
> .i nu'i mi fo lo purci nu'u .e do fo lo balvi cu srera

dihu cu zabna se cusku

> I wonder, incidentally, how to translate "explain that [clause]"
> - the x2 of ciksi seems also to be the x4 of ciksi.
> >++++++++++++
> The x2 is the thing explained (about), the x4 the explanation.
> So 'explain that I made an error' is
> 'ciksi fo le du'u mi srera'
> However I'm not happy about that, because I've just realised that
> there are two meanings of 'explain' in English - one is definitely
> covered by 'ciksi', one  might not be.
> They are:
> 'explain the workings/mechanism/details/purpose of some system'
> (definitely ciksi)
> 'explain the justification for some action' (dubious, because it
> typically implies 'justify')
> 'Explain that' is often the latter, and I think 'krinu cusku' or even
> 'zungi vimcu troci'  is often more appropriate.

"We were at a loose end, so I decided to explain to her that grammar
is monostratal." This is not justification, but at the same time
it is not explaining the workings; rather, it is making an assertion
in a way that explains the grounds for that assertion. There is a
didactic element. One gets the reader to understand the assertion
as it is being asserted, by the characterstics of the assertion.

> ps
> I wonder what the current rash of entirely Lojban postings is having
> on less committed or less expert readers of the list.  Comments
> anybody?

When I first subscribed, & still now when I'm too busy, I just
threw them away without reading them. I think it a good mix
to have technical discussion in Englsih, plus chat or longer
texts in Lojban - it shows (hopefully) that there is more to
the language than being a discussion forum for the incurably
pedantic.

----
And