Re: GLI Re: Indirect questions

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>To those worried about the horribly arcane nature of this discussion,
>we are trying to decide whether {le sedu'u xukau ko'a badri} makes
>sense, as in {mi cusku le sedu'u xukau ko'a badri}, which to me
>means "I say whether she is sad".

Since I see the use of kau being conventional rather than analytical, I
have no problem with this.  Or is there some other plausible meaning to
such usage.

To me, if we can come up with one meaning for an expression using a
discursive, it works as a convention regardless of whether that discursive
has identical meaning in other expressions not fitting the convention.
Only ifthere are two plausible meanings  to a convention do we even have to
make a decision (in which case we might choose based on consistency with other
usages).  I am unwiulling to say that ANYTHING has no meaning if we can
come up with a useful conventional interpretation.

> >> But then, is {kucli da} = {djica le nu/du'u djuno da}?
> >
>>{kucli} has two meanings, one where the x2 is an indirect
>>question, and one where it isn't. {kucli da} doesn't
>>mean {djica le nu/du'u djuno da}, but {kucli lo nu xu kau}
>>does mean {djica lo nu djuno lo nu xu kau}.
>
>But doesn't this go against the spirit of the language?

NO.  Because, if I understand, this has nothing to do with the meaning
of djica.  One example has a kau in it and the other does not.  The existance
of a discursive like kau can change the meaning of a sumti in ways that can
require conventional interpretation.

In any event, I think kucli da means something more akin to
"djica lenu djuno ba'e fi da"
and you can substitute lonu xukau bu'a for "da" withoutany problems that
are obvious to me.

But kau is a way of putting focus on partof the abstraction to indicate
what it is you want to know about in particular, but you still want to
know about the event.

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                        703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab
    or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/";
    Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.