Message-Id: <m0sS7ZT-0000YjC@xiron.pc.helsinki.fi>
Date:         Sat, 1 Jul 1995 14:46:00 EDT
Reply-To:     jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Sender:       Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From:         jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject:      Re: Lojban question (fwd)
To:           Veijo Vilva <veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI>
Content-Length: 1278
Lines: 34

la lojbab cusku di'e

> I avoided this one, since it sounds like a quote from something, and I don't
> have the vaguest idea of context.

Make one up for yourself! I pictured it as a cartoon character looking
in the mirror.

> >> > "Oh, my God!  There's an axe in my head!"
> >
> >        ue o'unai lo mudydakfu cu pagre le mi stedu
>
> One can only hypothesize exactly what attitudinals are applicable without
> context (and even then youi are guessing).  But why "pagre" and not "nenri"
> (a small axe?)?

Do you really think the axe could be inside the head? I think that would
be unlikely. How could it have gotten there? And how would the head's
owner find out? ("Oh, my God!" implies at least surprize.)

> Did the axe pass through the head and keep going, or is it
>  still there?  You might need some explicit tense like ca'o to make "pagre"
> mean that it is currently "in" his head.

I tend to assume {ca ca'o} in the absence of explicit tense.

> Of course axes don't pass through heads in normal life - they cleave them.
> So perhaps the author intended "ba'o {cleave}".

What is "cleave" in Lojban? {pagre} is the closest thing I found,
and that's what I intended. No fair criticizing my translation without
giving one of your own for me to criticize...  :)

Jorge