Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 20:38:48 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712030138.UAA13086@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: JORGE JOAQUIN LLAMBIAS Sender: Lojban list From: JORGE JOAQUIN LLAMBIAS Subject: Re: kau X-To: lojban To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1292 Lines: 38 And: >> >ni'o co'i le cerni cu preti fofo'a feleli'i fo'a capu sipna ge'ekau >> "In the morning they asked her how she had slept." >> I would use {peikau} rather than {ge'ekau}, but in any >> case it is definitely an indirect question. > >I infer that {ge`e} is a BAI question word. No, is an unspecified emotion. ge'e is to UI as zo'e is to KOhA. That's why I would have used pei instead, which is the question UI. >> As focus marker I would use {ba'e}: >> >> mi djuno le du`u ba'e la djan dancatra la alis >> I know that it was John that shot Alice. >> >> ba'e la djan dancatra la alis >> It was John that shot Alice. >> >> It is not very clear to me why {ba'e} couldn't just have been a UI, >> and thus spare yet another selmaho, but that's another story. > >Then ba`e would have had to follow the word it marks, rather than >precede it. Maybe that was a factor. Yes, probably. But why was there a need for it to precede? >Anyway, ba`e means "new info", which is not the same as focus. ba'e means "emphasize next". (I understand what you meant by {ba'e ko'a} now. I was a bit puzzled.) >The English it-cleft construction focalizes. So I think I'll >stick with kau as a focalizer. Isn't emphasis something like focus? Maybe not, I don't know. co'o mi'e xorxes