TECH: a few proposals anent attitudinals

[John Cowan <snark!cowan@GVLS1.VFL.PARAMAX.COM>]

No, no grammar changes this time; just a few possible cmavo changes on
which I want comment, please.  I am in process of (re)writing the attitudinal
paper, including lots more material, and a few oddities have struck my eye.

1. The evidential "ba'a", meaning "I expect - I experience - I remember", is
explained as follows:

> The three scale positions of "ba'a", when attached to a bridi, indicate
> that it is based on the speaker's view of the real world.  Thus "ba'a"
> means that the statement is justified by future events as anticipated
> by the speaker; "ba'acu'i", by present events as experienced by the speaker;
> "ba'anai", by past events as remembered by the speaker.

The memory hook for "ba'a" is "balvi", which is why the future position is
taken to be the "positive" one.  Should "ba'a" be reversed to get the past
on the left, as it were?  Should a new cmavo be assigned in that case?


2. The discursives "va'i" and "ke'u" both represent scales referring to
repeating what has been said vs. saying something new.  "va'i" operates
at the level of words: "va'i" means "in other words" and "va'inai" means
"repeating the same words".  "ke'u", OTOH, operates at the level of ideas:
"ke'u" means "repeating the same idea" and "ke'unai" means "continuing to
a new idea".

As can be seen, these scales are oppositely aligned: "va'i" corresponds
to "ke'unai", and "ke'u" to "va'inai".  Should one be changed to match the
other?  If so, "va'i" is the natural one to change, because its memory hook
is just "valsi" whereas "ke'u" is tied to "krefu".  OTOH, "va'i" has seen
some use, both on the net and in print -- it's used in one of Nora's cartoons.

--
John Cowan      cowan@snark.thyrsus.com         ...!uunet!lock60!snark!cowan
                        e'osai ko sarji la lojban.