On Jan 7, 2008 7:11 PM, <mungojelly@ixkey.info> wrote:
OK, so ".e'e" isn't a feeling of being confident, it's a feeling that
someone is capable (possibly yourself).
I would put it as "showing an attitude of encouragement or exhortation",
rather than "feeling" anything, just as I wouldn't say {e'a} is a feeling of
permissiveness, or {e'u} a feeling of suggestiveness, or {e'o} a
"feeling of request".
Attitudinals often can be used to express feelings, but then again
it is not always feelings that they express.
How about ".ei"? I had been thinking it's your own obligation, can it
be someone else's?
In my understanding, {ei} is used to indicate not anyone's obligation,
but how the speaker feels things ought to be. For example:
ei lo forca cu pritu lo palta
The fork ought to go to the right of the plate.
That's obviously not an oblgation of the fork, nor directly of any person.
But when there is an agent involved, expressing how things ought to
be is very close to expressing an obigation of the agent:
ei la djan klama le zarci
It ought to be the case that John goes to the market.
John ought to go to the market.
Or is that what ".e'i" means, that someone is
"constrained"/obligated to do something?
I undestand "e'i", in the light of the e-series roughly corresponding
to the imperative mood, as imposing an obligation:
e'i la djan klama le zarci
Let John go to the market.
(Not "let" in the sense of "allow", but English is not very good with third
person imperatives.)
So:
e'a: grant permission
e'e: give encouragement
e'i: impose an obligation
e'o: pose a request
e'u: offer a suggestion
mu'o mi'e xorxes