From rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Mon Feb 03 10:46:30 2003 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Mon, 03 Feb 2003 10:46:31 -0800 (PST) Received: from rlpowell by digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.05) id 18flbu-0004qn-00 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Mon, 03 Feb 2003 10:46:26 -0800 Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 10:46:26 -0800 To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: [lojban-beginners] Re: Greetings, and commands Message-ID: <20030203184626.GB17969@digitalkingdom.org> Mail-Followup-To: lojban-list@lojban.org References: <67E894BA4AB90F4781580985A5FAF32E16986E@rachael.letnet.net> <20030201010726.GI9156@digitalkingdom.org> <3E3B4CF0.7090501@bilkent.edu.tr> <20030201081643.GC22249@mit.edu> <20030201191255.GK13520@digitalkingdom.org> <20030202083926.GA25701@mit.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030202083926.GA25701@mit.edu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.3i From: Robin Lee Powell X-archive-position: 3994 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list On Sun, Feb 02, 2003 at 03:39:26AM -0500, Rob Speer wrote: > On Sat, Feb 01, 2003 at 11:12:55AM -0800, Robin Lee Powell wrote: > > When used as a *command*, a suggestion seems to me to be obviously > > more polite by default than a statement of obligation. Not so in > > other cases, of course. > > True; I suppose I went off on the wrong tangent of my rant. > > The thing here is that I don't believe that a sentence with {e'u} but > not {ko} is any sort of command at all. It's not; it's a suggestion. I suppose one could consider it a very weak command. However, IIRC, the examples all had ko in them. > That does mean that I consider {ei} to be somewhat special, and this > is only because it fills a void in the language - turning a sentence > into a command without using a pronoun to do it. I don't like {ei} > commands very much, but we need them. We do? > Then again, there are alternatives. {do'e ko} seems like it could do > the trick (making "ko" take effect without filling a sumti place) in > general. To save a syllable, {fai ko} seems to do the same thing by > somewhat cheating. If the listener can actually be expected to do > something to fulfill the command, there's also {bai ko}. -Robin -- http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** I'm a *male* Robin. .i le pamoi velru'e zo'u crepu le plibu taxfu .i le remoi velru'e zo'u mo .i le cimoi velru'e zo'u ba'e prali .uisai http://www.lojban.org/ *** to sa'a cu'u lei pibyta'u cridrnoma toi