Message-Id: <9107230313.AA07480@relay2.UU.NET>
From: cbmvax!uunet!ctr.columbia.edu!shoulson
Date: Tue Jul 23 00:46:35 1991
To: lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com
Subject: A few questions
Status: RO

Hey.

I'm working on a translation (nearly finished, it's short), and decided
that rather than put it out with questions, I should ask them first.

First and most importantly:  is there a gismu for "forget"?  I didn't find
one.  You can't use "na morji", since it's possible not to remember
something by never knowing it in the first place.  I suppose you could use
"sisti lenu morji" but that's real ugly.  Or can we use sismo'i as a
well-understood lujvo?  I'm usually leery of lujvo, preferring tanru.

How would you say "to hang" transitively?  dandu is intransitive.  I have
either cpana punji or dandu punji (atop-place or hang-place).  The second
seems like taking unfair use of the dandu gismu, and the first isn't quite
accurate:  it's not going on top, it's hanging off.

How might I ask a rhetorical question?  I hoped to find a discursive, but
couldn't.  For example, I'm asking "how can I do this?" rhetorically,
because the activity in question is emotionally difficult (ummm, you're
asking me to play guitar at the wedding of my mother's murderer or
something).  Currently, I'm handling it by saying "mi kakne lenu co'e kei
ri'a makau"  (I am-able to-do-something mentally-caused-by what?(I know)).
I'm not sure that has the right meanings.

What's a good discursive for a hypothetical or counterfactual claim?  "If I
were to eat my left foot, I'd need only one shoe." (but I haven't and don't
plan to eat it).  I'm using "ru'a"--I postulate.  Is that right?  "le nu mi
ru'a citka lemi zunle jamfu kei cu rinka lenu mi nitcu pa cutci"
(the-event-of I (postulate!) eat my left-foot causes the-event-of I need
one shoe).  Does that work?

Have we got a better way of saying "stick" (as in adhere) than using
"lasna" (fasten) with various SE and FA words?  That method's okay, I
guess.  I'm just asking.

co'omi'e .mark.