Message-Id: <199309081620.AA08464@eli.CS.YALE.EDU>
Date:         Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:17:35 EDT
Reply-To: Jorge LLambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU>
From: Jorge LLambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: old mail response
To: Erik Rauch <rauch>
Status: RO

la lojbab cusku di'e
>
> If you can find the erroneous/misleading lesson usage of "ti", please
> let me know so we get it fixed.
>

From the minilesson:

>>> mi tavla zo'e tu ti     means   I talk to someone about that thing yonder
>>>                                 in this language.


Also, I was confused by:

>>>    mi tavla do ti         I talk to you about this.

In the above English expression, I would say that "this" is often, if not
usually, an abstract topic, rather than a pointable object. I did not
interpret it as the referent of any previous sentence, but rather as
the topic at hand, the same as in the case of the language. I thought that
the "pointing" was more figurative than literal.


> There is no cmavo anaphora for "the whole situation", but something like
> levi tcini might do.  "levi" "leva" often work as substitutes for "this"
> and "that" in English.


So "vi" does not refer to space only? Also, I don't understand what "tcini"
means. What would be the x2 of "tcini" in the situation I was describing,
which was that I wanted to refer to Spanish-speaking Americans, and not to
American fragrances, as my mistaken rafsi suggested.


>
> >A question:  I used djica to say what I "wanted" to say, but actually I
> >wanted to say that I "intended" to say something, not "desired".  Is
> >there a better gismu for this?
>
> If no one answered: "platu" might work.
>

The answers I got suggested the use of ".ai", but this often doesn't work,
especially when refering to someone else's intentions. I don't think "platu"
does it. I was not planning or plotting to say anything, I was just saying
it without any premeditation, just an intended meaning, which turned out
not to be the one I actually got. Later on, when chatting with And, I noticed
that he used the x3 of "zukte" for this meaning, and this is the best I've
seen so far, so I used it as well.

co'o mi'e xorxes