From nsn  Sat Mar  6 22:52:47 2010
From: nsn (Nick Nicholas)
Subject: Re: Place structure paper, version 1.2
To: cowan@snark.thyrsus.com (John Cowan)
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1993 22:56:39 +1000 (EST)
Cc: lojbab@grebyn.com, nsn@munagin.ee.mu.oz.au, c.j.fine@bradford.ac.uk,
        vilva@viikki21.helsinki.fi, I.Alexander.bra0125@oasis.icl.co.uk,
        shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu, iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
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Message-ID: <4lnaHU9ud0P.A.MP._00kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org>

The Seraphim surely rejoiced when John Cowan spoke thus:

#10. Modal Relative Phrases: Comparison

I'd make that colon a semicolon; clearly relative phrases other than 
comparatives follow the rules outlined in this section.

#Here we are told that Frank likes Mary rather than Betty; the information
#about the comparison is the same.  It would be possible to rephrase Example
#10.7 using "me'a" rather than "semau", and Example 10.8 using "mau" rather
#than "seme'a", but such usage would be unnecessarily confusing.  Like many
#BAI cmavo, "mau" and "me'a" are more useful when converted with "se".

It might be helpful to say here explicitly that "mau" without "ne" in a bridi
actually means something different (comparison of predications), and thus that
the "ne" needs to be inserted.

#		gi'eseri'ake bevri le gerku gi'acabo bevri le mlatu
Shouldn't that be "gi'adu'ibo"?

#13.1)	mi nelci do mu'i le nu do nelci mi
#places the "le nu" sumti in the x1 place of the underlying gismu "mukti",
#namely the motivating event,

It may be helpful to give the 'paraphrase': "lenu do nelci mi cu mukti lenu
mi nelci do"

#13.2)	mi nelci do ba le nu do nelci mi
#places the "le nu" sumti in the x2 place of the underlying gismu "balvi",
#namely the point of reference for the future tense.  

Again: "lenu do nelci mi cu se balvi lenu mi nelci do"

#Contradictory negation involving BAI cmavo is performed by appending
#"-nai" (of selma'o NAI) to the BAI.  A common use of modals with "-nai"
#is to deny a causal relationship:
#14.1)	mi nelci do mu'inai le nu do nelci mi
#	I like you, but not because you like me.

Hm. The ma'oste typically says "despite" here; is there anything requiring
clarification?

#To cancel stickiness, use the form "BAI ki ku", which stops any modal
#value for the specified BAI from being passed to the next bridi.  There is
#no simple way to cancel stickiness for all modals simultaneously.

What about "ki" by itself? Surely it has a modal, as well as tense, function.

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 On the edge of the Rubicon,             nsn@munagin.ee.mu.oz.au (IRC: nicxjo)
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