Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 08:26:20 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199711011326.IAA00578@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Ivan A Derzhanski Sender: Lojban list From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: Re: terminators X-To: LOJBAN@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1297 Lines: 29 Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} wrote: > >>>>> "Robin" == Robin Turner writes: > Robin> The closest I've found is Chinese, which employs a few > Robin> terminator-like structures, e.g. "yinwei ... suoyi" for > Robin> causation (normally rendered into English as "because ... > Robin> therefore ..."). > > This is not a good example of terminators. That's because the > "yin1wei4 A, suo3yi3 B" can be replaced by "A, suo3yi3 B" without > removing the causual relationship. Moreover, the same idea can also > be rendered as "B, yin1wei4 A". It is also not a good example because _suo3yi3_ does not terminate the construction; it simply introduces the second part. I wonder why the English _if ... then ... else/otherwise ..._ wasn't offered as an example. It looks very much like _yin1wei4 ... suo3yi3 ..._, and again it has no terminator, although it would have one if English, like Algol 68 or Ada, used _fi_ or _end if_. > For examples of terminators, how about postpositional languages, such > as Korean and Japanese? Aren't the postpositions terminators by > themselves? No. A terminator is a (frequently optional) right bracket that matches a required left bracket. If a postposition is a right bracket, what is the left? --Ivan