Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 02:25:07 EDT From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group) Message-Id: <9306230625.AA02372@grebyn.com> To: 91909372@bradford.ac.uk, cowan@snark.thyrsus.com, nsn@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au Subject: forward of vVeijo's attitudinal proposal mentioned in my response X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 >From VILVA@viikki21.helsinki.fi Tue Jun 22 01:25:11 1993 Return-Path: id AA11480; Tue, 22 Jun 93 01:25:05 EDT (5.65c8/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Tue, 22 Jun 1993 08:24:59 +0300 via Charon 3.4 with IPX id 100.930622082322.448; 22 Jun 93 08:26:36 +0200 Message-Id: To: lojbab@grebyn.com From: VILVA@viikki21.helsinki.fi Date: 22 Jun 93 08:21:26 EET DST Subject: Indicator contour modifiers Priority: normal During the week-end I gave some thought to the expression of attitudes. Even though we can exclude very complex emotions requiring logical analysis (they can be appropriately dealt with using relative clauses) I think we ought to add a group of modifiers to the system, i.e. indicator contour modifiers. Even very spontaneous feelings can have a contour element. A feeling may be momentary, situational or switch from one extreme to the other. A set of five contours might be enough. In the following I chose to use separate cmavo for each contour to gain the additional benefit of being able to differentiate between causal and incidental feelings. xu'a the modified indicator has global scope (default?) xu'e the m. i. is restricted to the context NB. actually we ought to weigh very carefully which one of the above two is better as the default. Explicit expression of the default can be used to add emphasis. xu'i the m. i. ceases to be true due to the fact described xu'o the m. i. becomes true due to the fact (and will be) xu'u the m. i. expresses a fleeting feeling examples: (only the attitudinals are translated) ko'a .iuxu'a broda I love ko'a (in general) [not related to le nu ko'a broda, no time contour] ko'a .iuxu'e broda I love ko'a while ko'a broda [not necessarily valid outside context, causal, delimited time span] ko'a .iuxu'i broda I have loved ko'a but will no more because of le nu ko'a broda [global scope, causally falling contour, cessitive] ko'a .iuxu'o broda I haven't loved ko'a but started to because of le nu ko'a broda [global scope, causally rising contour, initiative] ko'a .iuxu'u broda I had a fleeting feeling of love towards ko'a because of le nu ko'a broda [causal momentary peak] Combined modifiers: ko'a .iucaixu'i ... My intense love waned ... ko'a .iuxu'icai ... My love was crushed ... ko'a .iuxu'unai ... My love isn't just something temporary ... [not quite the same as .iuxu'a, retains traces of causality] I think these contours, at least, are quite common and need to be expressed - as attitudes do have their own dynamics. The present system, though already quite powerful, has basically a very static view of human emotions. We ought to rectify that, pe'i. Dynamic emotions can, of course, be expressed in many ways. A set of modifiers will, however, fit seamlessly into the present framework. It will also keep the thread of emotions separate from the logical structure of the rest of the bridi involved and achieve an immediacy not attainable with lengthy explaining relative clauses, parenthetical remarks or interleaved commenting sentences. The field of human emotions is a complex one and we may find it necessary to contemplate even other dimensions later on after we have gained more experience in the use of modified attitudinals. I have used a set of experimental cmavo in the above but, if the idea is accepted, we must, of course, assign permanent cmavo from the set of unassigned ones. I'm sending this to you for initial comments on the viability of the basic idea as you know the present system better than anyone else. If you think it worthwhile I can mail it to the list or you can present it at the LogFest. Veijo ------------------------------------------------------------------ Veijo Vilva vilva@viikki21.helsinki.fi