From cbmvax!uunet!cuvmb.bitnet!LOJBAN Tue Jul 28 11:38:31 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Tue, 28 Jul 92 11:37 EDT Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA08026; Tue, 28 Jul 92 09:39:48 EDT Received: from rutgers.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA21140; Tue, 28 Jul 92 08:23:12 -0400 Received: from cbmvax.UUCP by rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) with UUCP id AA01062; Tue, 28 Jul 92 07:46:29 EDT Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA29429; Tue, 28 Jul 92 07:46:09 EDT Received: from pucc.Princeton.EDU by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA09778; Tue, 28 Jul 92 07:00:48 -0400 Message-Id: <9207281100.AA09778@relay1.UU.NET> Received: from PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU by pucc.Princeton.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 7490; Tue, 28 Jul 92 07:00:09 EDT Received: by PUCC (Mailer R2.08 ptf034) id 2236; Tue, 28 Jul 92 06:59:48 EDT Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 11:51:08 BST Reply-To: CJ FINE Sender: Lojban list From: CJ FINE Subject: Re: NU variations X-To: I.Alexander.bra0122@OASIS.ICL.CO.UK X-Cc: Lojban list To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: ; from "I.Alexander.bra0122@UK.CO.ICL.OASIS" at Jul 27, 92 1:35 pm Status: RO di'e preti fila .i,yn > > > Is there any real _semantic_ difference between > > lenu broda > le jai fau broda > le jai fi'o fasnu fe'u broda > > I haven't checked them all, but the rest of the NU appear > to have similar counterparts. > > (Obviously there's a _syntactic_ difference when supplying > sumti for the broda, or for the NU (or the tag).) > I don't think "nu" and "jaifau" mean the same thing at all. "ti broda fau ta" is glossed as "this broda-s in the event-of that", and while this does NOT have the concessive sense of English "in the event of", it seems to me that "ta" is not the "nu broda" but some concomitant event. Thus "le jaifau broda" is the event which, in some presumably obvious way, goes with the broda-ing, rather than the broda-ing itself. With "fi'o" on the other hand, although the BAI were not originally defined to mean quite the same thing as their associated brivla, I think they have been heading that way, and so fau and fi'o fasnu are increasingly synonymous, ditto seka'a and fi'o se klama and so on. I suspect the actual difference is that in each case the BAI cmavo is in principle more precisely defined than the FI'O phrase; but in practice the meaning of BAI is still unclear in many cases (including this one). co'omi'e kolin