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CHANGE 35: tail terms after forethought-connected bridi-tails



CHANGE 35

CURRENT LANGUAGE:

It is possible to add "tail terms" after an afterthought-connected pair of
bridi tails; the tail terms are applied equally to each logically connected
bridi-tail.  It is not possible to add tail terms with forethought connection.

PROPOSED CHANGE:

Permit tail terms after a forethought connection.  The BNF rule which 
changes is as follows:

> gek-bridi-tail<54>  = gek bridi-tail gik bridi-tail-3 |
> 	tag KE gek-bridi-tail /KEhE#/ | NA # gek-bridi-tail

becomes:

> gek-bridi-tail<54>  = gek bridi-tail gik bridi-tail tail-terms |
> 	tag KE gek-bridi-tail /KEhE#/ | NA # gek-bridi-tail


Normally, the additional tail-terms reduces to an elidable "vau".
Note that a full bridi-tail (possibly with afterthought connectives in it)
is now possible as the right-hand connectand; formerly, afterthought
connectives in such a context would be outside the gek-bridi-tail's scope.

RATIONALE:

Consider:

1)	mi dunda le mlatu do .ije mi lebna le gerku do
	I give the cat to-you, and I take the dog from-you.

These logically connected bridi share the same sumti in their x1 and x3
places, but have different selbri and x2 sumti.  They are therefore candidates
for a bridi-tail connection as follows:

2)	mi dunda le mlatu do gi'e lebna le gerku do
	I give the cat to-you and take the dog from-you.

Example 2 removes the x1 redundancy, but leaves the x3 redundancy in place.
This can be cured by moving x3 to the beginning with a pair of FA tags,
but an alternative construction is:

3)	mi dunda le mlatu gi'e lebna le gerku vau do
	I (give the cat and take the dog) from/to you.

The explicit "vau" here signals the end of the bridi-tail connection; the
remaining term (a "tail term") is shared equally by both halves.  With
all elidable terminators supplied, Example 3 becomes:

4)	mi dunda le mlatu [ku] [vau] gi'e lebna le gerku [ku] vau do [vau]

With this change, a forethought version of Example 3 becomes possible:

5)	mi ge dunda le mlatu gi lebna le gerku vau do
	I (both give the cat and take the dog) from/to you.

which before was ungrammatical.

This change is exceedingly unlikely to affect any existing text; it is
possible that an explicit "vau" might need to be added somewhere.

-- 
John Cowan		sharing account <lojbab@access.digex.net> for now
		e'osai ko sarji la lojban.