From cowan Sat Mar 6 22:53:16 2010 Subject: Re: {ga'inai} error To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu (Lojban List) From: cowan Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 15:22:24 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <199512281408.JAA28223@locke.ccil.org> from "Robert J. Chassell" at Dec 28, 95 08:46:48 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1484 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Jan 2 15:22:24 1996 X-From-Space-Address: cowan Message-ID: <8HRBWzkILsJ.A.6Y.c10kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org> la bob. cusku di'e > 3. "But the others already came!" said the butler meekly. > ^^^^^^ > > lu .i .ue ku'i lei drata prenu ba'o vitke li'u > Surprise, however, the mass of other people are in the > aftermath of visiting. > > la'e di'u se cusku le zdase'u ga'inai > ^^^^^^^ > the last utterance was said by the house-type of servant meekly. > > > As I wrote, it is I, the author who is speaking humbly. It actually reads: > > Your humble and unworthy author notes that the > the last utterance was spoken by the butler. Everything in the rest of this posting is quite correct except for one point. In "le zdase'u ga'inai" the speaker expresses his inferiority to the referent of "le zdase'u" rather than to things-in-general, in accordance with the rule that a UI following some construct expresses attitude toward the referent of the construct. So a good translation would be: The last sentence was spoken by His Highness, Count of the Table. Another point not brought up by Bob: "la'e di'u" tells us that the referent of the sentence was said by H.H.C.o.t.T., whereas "di'u" alone would mean that the actual sentence was said by him. Direct quotation demands "di'e se cusku" etc. > (Certainly, I ought be humble, for making this mistake! :) So ought we all to be. -- John Cowan cowan@ccil.org e'osai ko sarji la lojban.