Re: [jbosnu] kau

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

On Mon, May 14, 2001 at 02:58:08AM +0000, Jorge Llambias wrote:
> 
> la camgusmis cusku di'e
> 
> > > >ki'u le du'u zoi gy. which of John or George (or both) is at the park
> > > >gy. .enai zoi gy. whether John or George (or both) is at the park. gy
> > > >preti
> > >
> > > So you won't accept that {na.enai} might be the answer?
> >
> >Oh, my bad. "I will see which of John or George (or both, or neither)
> >is at the park."
> 
> Then I don't understand your objection. "Whether ...or ..." is the
> normal wording in English for the indirect question that corresponds
> to the "or" direct question.
> 
> Do you want coffee or tea? He asked whether I want coffee or tea.
> 
> I could also say "He asked which of coffee or tea I wanted, if any" or
> something like that, but what is wrong with the straightfoward way?

Nothing's wrong with the straightforward way, but the point of indirect
questions is to produce a sentence structure in which a question is
embedded, and the english translation of 8.8 in the book had no such
structure.

Whether you consider this pointful or not is a different issue, but I
like them in lojban for subtlety and emphasis, because you can put kau
after anything, thus effectively answering your own question in a nice
little sarcastic touch.

-Robin

-- 
http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ BTW, I'm male, honest.
le datni cu djica le nu zifre .iku'i .oi le so'e datni cu to'e te pilno
je xlali -- RLP http://www.lojban.org/