Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 20:05:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject: Re: lojban recordings
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
To: Veijo Vilva <veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI>
Reply-to: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
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la djan spuda la and di'e
 
> > On the same topic, what would you use for a backchannel, like "right,
> > yeah, mhm" etc.? (I.e. stuff the addressee says while the speaker's
> > talking.) Nothing in COI seems an obvious choice. {je'e} seems
> > the best, but my cmaste says it has a specialized usage of
> > acknowledgement, which is different from backchanneling.
>
> "je'e" is indeed the Right Thing; it specifically "acknowledges the
> successful reception of a communcation" (the attitudinal paper).
>
> What do you understand by "acknowledgement" other than this?
 
The cmavo list says:
 
je'e      COI     roger     vocative: roger (ack) - negative acknowledge;
used to acknowledge offers and thanks
 
What does it mean "to acknowledge an offer"? Is it the same as
accepting it? And what exactly does "i'a" mean?
 
.i'a      UI1     acceptance     attitudinal: acceptance - blame
 
What has acceptance got to do with blame? And what is {i'anai}?
Is it "it's your fault" or is it "mea culpa"? Or is the scale
"acceptance - blame" a scale between "my fault" and "your fault"?
 
Also, it would be nice to have a more gracious way of replying
to "thank you" than "mhm". Of course, it has to be somewhat
idiomatic, but I still haven't found a nice way to do it.
 
Jorge