[lojban-beginners] Re: attitudinals question

["Jorge Llambías" <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 9:00 PM, Steve Sloan <steve@finagle.org> wrote:
>
> I interpret {xu do} as just "You?".

Yes. It's an incomplete question, we need context to understand what
is being asked.

{xu} always asks whether some bridi is true or not. When it's not in
front of the bridi, it can be used to put the focus on some particular
part of the question, but the question is always a yes/no question:

 xu do dunda le cukta la djan
 Did you give the book to John?

 do xu dunda le cukta la djan
 Did YOU give the book to John? (I probably assume someone gave it to
him, and I want to know whether it was you.)

 do dunda xu le cukta la djan
 Did you GIVE the book to John? (I probably assume you did something
to John with the book, and I want tknow whether it was giving it,
instead of selling it for example.)

 do dunda le cukta xu la djan
 Did you give the BOOK to John? (Or was it something else?)

 do dunda le cukta la djan xu
 Did you give the book to JOHN? (Or was it to someone else?)

But in all cases xu asks whether it is true or not that you gave the
book to John.

{xu do} has an unstated selbri, it's more or less equivalent to {xu do
co'e}. So, yes, it means "You?" but what exactly that is asking needs
context.

> I suppose a very loose translation of {xu do .ui} could be "better you than
> me".

Or "You? Yay!!!" Maybe I'm happy because it wasn't me, or maybe
because it wasn't him or her, or maybe just because it is you who
came, just the person I wanted to see, or maybe... We need context.

mu'o mi'e xorxes