[lojban-beginners] Re: zo zu'i

["Brett Williams" <mungojelly@gmail.com>]

On 4/23/08, Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com> wrote:
> That's a pretty accurate description for {zo'e} too.

As I understand it, {zo'e} doesn't have to be a typical or expectable referent.  It just says that there's some referent which fills the place, perhaps a strange one.  So I wouldn't consider this to be a confusing communicaton: 
 
Person A: mi cliva lo dinju ku zo'e 
 Person B: cliva fi ma? 
Person A: lo canko 
 
(A: "I left the building by some route."  B: "What route?"  A: "The window.") 
 
A window is something that can be a tercliva, so it's not necessarily a miscommunication to call it "zo'e".  Indeed, saying "zo'e" when you could have as well elided the word or said "zu'i" could be considered a very weak implication that there might be something odd about that referent.  OTOH I would consider this a clear miscommunication: 
 
Person A: mi cliva lo dinju ku zu'i 
Person B: cliva fi ma? 
Person A: lo canko 
Person B: .ue sai .ua nai xu? so'a nu do cliva lo dinju cu nu cliva fi lo canko 
 
(B: "I'm surprised; I don't understand; are almost all events of you leaving a building events of you leaving by the window??") 
 
"zo'e" is almost-identical to a blank space, but "zu'i" is a referent that the listener should already be able to predict, or at least make some good guesses about. 
  
mu'o mi'e .bret.