Re: [bpfk] Re: {.i} and {ni'o}, continuation or new jufra

[Daniel Brockman <daniel@brockman.se>]

First, let me make it clear that I don't think this is an
important feature.  I'm participating in the discussion
because a well-designed unnecessary feature is better
than an ill-designed unnecessary feature.

Here's how I see it:

  {fa'ai}: Explicitly opens a new text.
  {fa'ei}: Explicitly opens an existing text for appending.
  {fa'o}: Explicitly closes the current text.

Both {fa'ai} and {fa'ei} implicitly cause any current text
to be closed as if they had been preceded by {fa'o}.

Lojban utterances that start with neither {fa'ai} nor {fa'ei}
are ambiguous as to whether they start a new text or
append to an existing one.  (This is a non-problem.)

But to me, {fa'ei} is incomplete if it does not provide a
way to indicate which existing text will be appended to.

The parameter to {fa'ei} should be a sumti whose referent
points the reader (whether human or machine) to the text
being appended to.  I expect that the sumti would usually
refer to the previous speaker.  The parameter is either
optional or you have to use {zo'e} if you want to be vague.

The word stream following {fa'ei} is not a text in itself and
thus cannot be parsed on its own.  You have to find the
existing text first, append to that, and then reparse.

I don't know what happens to pronouns like {mi} and {do}
when one speaker appends to another speaker's text.
I think {mi} should always refer to the current speaker,
but {do} is a little more problematic.

   A: {mi klama lo zarci} + B: {fa'ei a bu fu lo mi karce}
   = {a bu klama lo zarci fu lo by karce}

   A: {doi by mi klama lo zarci} + B: {fa'ei a bu fu lo do karce}
   = ?

Also, in what semantic context should the {fa'ei}
parameter be evaluated?  I guess in a "new" context,
whatever that means.

Again, I actually don't think any of this is important.
Maybe I'm just discussing for the sake of discussion.

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