[lojban-beginners] Re: modals and references

["Chris Capel" <pdf23ds@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 11:36, peter hering <pjhering@gmail.com> wrote:
> jboski finds the following sentence satisfactory:
> mi puzi mo'u cu tinju'i le snavei cukta me'e la'o gy confessions of an
> economic hitman gy fi'e la djan.perkins.

It parses fine because modals aren't picky about where they go, and
all modals have the same grammar.

BTW, what's that "cu" for? It causes "puzi mo'u" to attach to the
bridi, while I would have thought you'd want it to attach to the
selbri, but I know I'm a bit confused on tags and such.

> Is this the correct use of the modals me'e and fi'e?  My intention is to say
> that the books title is 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman' and that the
> book's author is John Perkins.

I'm not sure, but probably you want a {be ... bei ... be'o} here after
{cukta}. In fact, you probably don't even need the modals, since
cukta's x3 is the author and its x2 could probably be filled with the
title.

mi puzi mo'u cu tinju'i le snavei cukta be la'o gy confessions of an
economic hitman gy bei la djan.perkins. be'o

Or you could use a {be} clause and keep the modals, it's up to you.
The {be}-clause attaches directly to the selbri {cukta}, which puts it
inside the sumti.

Chris Capel
-- 
"What is it like to be a bat? What is it like to bat a bee? What is it
like to be a bee being batted? What is it like to be a batted bee?"
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