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[lojban-beginners] Re: newbies troubles 2



The thing is, answering naicai does not mean "absolutely not, and I shall that you never to mention it in my presence again".  It only says "absolutely not"

You might infer anger, but for that you'd need to add some other attitudinals.

If you said "cai" that would mean "absolutely" - the event is funny.

You could add je'unai to mark that you don't really mean the cai, but that's kind of like quoting.

I guess sarcasm doesn't go so well in a language that is supposed to be unambiguous. Humor, sarcasm, and irony. They all seem to depend on ambiguities.

mu'o mi'e ioAV

On Dec 9, 2007, at 11:13 PM, Alex Bruce wrote:

My progress in lojban has being slow going.
 
The flashcards I’ve received I’m making poor progress on, as it stands I’ve managed to learn maybe 10 selbri. I’m getting better with the structure of lojban but I can’t seem to get the bulk down.
 
I was thinking maybe some exercises in translation would help. Does anyone have some paragraphs or anything that translate well into lojban?
Or maybe you have another strategy I can use?
 
Also I’m wondering about sarcasm, my favorite part of communication.
An example in the beginners guide goes like this:
.i .u'ipei do farlu le pesxu 
You fell into the mud! Funny, eh?
could well be ru'e: "Kinda..." Then again, it could also be naicai: "Absolutely not, and I shall thank you never to mention it in my presence again." (Allowing for some latitude in translation...)
 
this I get, but the principle of sarcasm is to illustrate something such that the absurdity of it serves to show the concept as wrong. Could you said cai then as a kind of way to say “Oh yes extremely funny L
 
Lojban does offer a way to sort of say the quoted example but like any joke is ruined If you tell people the answer, sarcasm is ruined if you let on that it is sarcasm (other than through a condescending tone)