Return-Path: Message-Id: From: cowan (John Cowan) Subject: Re: Observatives To: lojban-list Date: Tue, 21 May 91 14:14:27 EDT In-Reply-To: <9104191549.AA01199@luna.math.ucla.edu>; from "math.ucla.edu!jimc" at Apr 19, 91 8:49 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.2 PL13] Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Tue May 21 14:15:06 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cowan la djim. kartr. puzu cusku di'e: > "A crocodile!" > is a typical observative, in which the listener's attention is called > to the referent set member(s) of the bare sumti. ("puzu" = "a long time earlier".) I missed this point and only caught it when surveying the old messages in lojban-archive (administrivia: we do keep such an archive and can forward old messages if needed). Lojban does not usually interpret "lo resprkrokodilo" as "A crocodile!" The normal translation of that would be a bare selbri: "resprkrokodilo", meaning "something-unspecified is-a-crocodile", possibly with an attitudinal like "za'a" (I observe!) or perhaps "ii" (Fear!). A bare sumti is normally used in reply to a sumti question with "ma": ma batci do le tuple .i lo resprkrokodilo What is biting you on the leg? A crocodile. -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban