From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMB.BITNET!LOJBAN Thu Jun 18 06:57:15 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Thu, 18 Jun 92 06:57 EDT Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA09324; Thu, 18 Jun 92 06:34:19 EDT Received: from pucc.Princeton.EDU by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA18129; Thu, 18 Jun 92 06:18:27 -0400 Message-Id: <9206181018.AA18129@relay1.UU.NET> Received: from PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU by pucc.Princeton.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 2496; Thu, 18 Jun 92 06:17:09 EDT Received: by PUCC (Mailer R2.08 ptf027) id 6209; Thu, 18 Jun 92 06:16:58 EDT Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1992 10:51:06 BST Reply-To: Ivan A Derzhanski Sender: Lojban list From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: More Wind from the North To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann In-Reply-To: Logical Language Group's message of Wed, 17 Jun 1992 01:45:59 -0400 <29147.9206170636@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> Status: RO X-Status: > Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1992 01:45:59 -0400 > From: Logical Language Group > > The fact that it is possible to come up with a situation where the semantics > of kau get a little fuzzy does not mean that it isn't useful, > especially since the English equivalents are none too clear either. That the English equivalents are none too clear may be a fault of English, or of my English. The Bulgarian equivalents are quite clear. I think the Greek ones ought to be clear too. I saw that there were _two_ options in Lojban (question word alone vs question word plus {kau}), as opposed to an unlimited number of levels of question embedding, and therefore questioned the appropriateness of the mechanism. I hadn't thought of the possibility of subscripting {kau}, as John suggested. > I know who you know that comes > mi djuno makau poi djuno ledu'u [ke'a] klama {poi do djuno}, you mean. I don't particularly like it. You should be able to do it without clefting. > I know that you know who comes. > mi djuno ledu'u do djuno tu'amakau poi klama Same thing. > (or perhaps the shorter) > mi djuno ledu'u do djuno tu'a le klama This is an example of an indirect question without a question word - what John is looking for. I'd wager this could be done in some natural languages as well. > My guess on > mi djuno ledu'u do djuno ledu'u makau klama > I know who it is that I know you know comes. Mine is `I know that you know who comes' or `I know who you know that comes', depending on how we define {kau}. Ivan