From dpt@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU Sat Mar 6 22:45:22 2010 Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 02:10:18 -0400 From: "Dylan P. Thurston" Subject: Re: {du'u} (was Re: Quantifiers) To: Bob LeChevalier X-From-Space-Date: X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu Message-ID: <31NVLjGjwVI.A.f-E.Cu0kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org> la xorxes cusku di'e > Any sentence about concrete objects makes reference to some > circumstance. How can {le cukta cu cpana le jubme} be a fact > without any reference to the circumstance that the book happens > to be on the table? It can't, as far as I know. (Well, maybe you could say le du'u le cukta cu ka'e cpana le jubme cu fatci and then just elide the {ka'e}...) la xorxes. pu cusku di'e > > > ... The sentence > > > with {le cukta} implies the one with {makau}, which says the > > > same but without mentioning what's on the table, just as in the > > > case of {facki}. mi di'e spusku > > No, I disagree: {makau} is different from {da}. I don't think the > > sentence with {makau} has any meaning. xy cusku di'e > I agree {makau} is different from {da}, very different. > {le du'u noda cpana le jubme cu fatci} also implies that > {le du'u makau cpana le jubme cu fatci}. I am not claiming that > this is a very useful thing to say, though, so I don't think I'll be > using it much Then I don't understand at all what you're proposing. Does there need to be a previous statement about what's on the table? I _really_ don't like that, since there's no such marking. Why wouldn't le du'u makau cpana le jubme cu jetnu always be true under your interpretation? (Actually, that may make sense. I'll need to think about it.) The statement mi djuno ledu'u makau cpana le jubme does not require any previous statement as to what's on the table. > > The distinction between the two kinds of uses of {du'u} seems to be > > that between a predication and a piece of information. > > Do you mean that {kau} makes sense for information but not for > predication? Yes; I think (or thought) {kau} _signalled_ the shift from predication to information. > I think all predications can be thought of as information, > I can think of {fatci} as "information x1 is factual/undisputable". This is an intriguing idea, though it clashes heavily with my natlang intuitions. The sentence What is on the table is factual. just doesn't make sense. (Though it does make more sense with "undisputable".) Let me sleep on this. > > mu'o mi'e. dilyn. > > > co'o mi'e xorxes mu'o mi'e dilyn.