Message-Id: <199509190441.AAA23736@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Mon, 18 Sep 1995 21:45:41 EDT
Reply-To: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject:      Re: lojban recordings
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

la djan cusku di'e
> la xorxes. cusku di'e
> > What does it mean "to acknowledge an offer"? Is it the same as
> > accepting it?
> I think that to refuse an offer, one has to do more than "je'e", but that
> "je'e" alone may pragmatically be understood as acceptance.

What if I want to say "I got your offer, let me think about it". Is there
no way then of acknowledging without commiting one way or the other as to
acceptance?

> > And what exactly does "i'a" mean?
> > .i'a      UI1     acceptance     attitudinal: acceptance - blame
> > What has acceptance got to do with blame?
>
> I almost understand this, but on reflection, I realize that I don't
> grasp the distinction between "i'anai" and "i'enai".

Well, blame involves assignment of responsability for an action, while
disapproval is simply a way of feeling towards an action. I may disapprove
of something you do, but if I think that you have a right to do it, blame
is totally out of place. Blame will enter only if the question of who is
responsible is relevant for some reason.

> > Or is the scale
> > "acceptance - blame" a scale between "my fault" and "your fault"?
>
> I don't think so.

Then what is the meaning of "acceptance" in that scale? It's very
confusing. Is it acceptance in the sense of "things are what they are,
nobody is to blame, nobody is responsible, it was an act of God"?

> To paraphrase some remarks made in The Loglanist about (the Loglan
> equivalent of) "coi", "je'e" is neither gracious nor ungracious, but
> merely correct.

But the whole point of a response to "thank you" is to be gracious,
not correct. What is a "correct" response to it? Would it be incorrect
to not respond anything? It would be impolite, nothing more, but then
responding "je'e" is not much more polite, unless it is the standard way
of doing it in the language, but usually there is at least a facade of
politeness in the standard formula. But in any case, a dry "je'e" is much
better than a hoplessly malglico "fi'i". In fact, "je'e" is what I have
been using, but I always felt a bit uneasy about it.

Jorge