From cowan@ccil.org Thu Mar 25 04:33:11 2004 Return-Path: X-Sender: cowan@ccil.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 32103 invoked from network); 25 Mar 2004 12:14:46 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.216) by m4.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 25 Mar 2004 12:14:46 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mercury.ccil.org) (192.190.237.100) by mta1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 25 Mar 2004 12:14:46 -0000 Received: from cowan by mercury.ccil.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B6Thy-00070T-00; Thu, 25 Mar 2004 07:11:38 -0500 Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 07:11:38 -0500 To: "xahlee.org" Cc: lojban@yahoogroups.com Message-ID: <20040325121138.GF20661@ccil.org> References: <200403250942.i2P9gdl17608@xahlee.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200403250942.i2P9gdl17608@xahlee.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 192.190.237.100 From: John Cowan Subject: Re: [lojban] Re:reply to a negated selbri X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=212516 X-Yahoo-Profile: johnwcowan X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 21792 xahlee.org scripsit: > Can anyone explain a bit why lojban choose to be the way it is? How do i view it in a positive light? :) The idea of "go'i" is that it repeats any part of the sentence not explicitly overridden (except of course the question word "xu"). So if we have a question "xu mi na klama le zarci" ("Are you not going to the store?"), then saying "go'i" by itself leaves the "na" in place, and means that you are not going. "na go'i" overrides the "na" with another "na" (as opposed to adding a "na", which would be a self-canceling double negative) and again means that you are not going. "ja'a goi" overrides the "na" with a "ja'a" and means that you are going. But the simplest way is to avoid "na" in questions altogether. -- John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Does anybody want any flotsam? / I've gotsam. Does anybody want any jetsam? / I can getsam. --Ogden Nash, No Doctors Today, Thank You