Re: [lojban-beginners] I think I can use "kau" to express Japanese "ga" and "wa"

[Felipe Gonçalves Assis <felipeg.assis@gmail.com>]

You appear to be describing a focus construction in Japanese.
English does it either by giving emphasis to the word "I" or "go"
(prosodic focus), or by a periphrastic construction such as
"It is I who goes" (syntactic focus).

CLL has a recently discussed example that suggests the use of
{kau} as a focus marker in lojban:
(8.4 in http://dag.github.com/cll/11/8). This use, however, is
disputed (see thread "[lojban] {kau} vs. {ba'e}" in the main
discussion list), the contrary opinion being that {ba'e} should
be used instead, mirroring the prosodic focus of English.

I have not participated in that discussion, but the fact is that the
use of {kau} as a focus marker is independent of its use as an
indirect question marker, since the preceding word is a question
word only in the latter. Also, the relation between emphasis and
focus is debatable.

I admit there is a certain ring to the use of {kau} as both indirect
question and focus marker: it is like the focus is replacing the
question word.

Anyway, to me, any informed use is valid, just keep in mind that
this is an undocumented part of lojban: {kau} has never been
clearly defined as focus marker, and {ba'e} is just vaguely defined
to correspond to emphasis.

mu'o
mi'e .asiz.



On 11 October 2012 21:21, .iocikun.juj. <yoshikuni.jujo@gmail.com> wrote:
> coi rodo
>
> I'm sorry that I have bad English skill.
> Please forgive it.
>
> English "I go" is "watashi ga iku" or "watashi wa iku" in Japanese.
>
> Who goes? I go. -> watashi ga iku
> What do you do? I go. -> watashi wa iku
>
> The difference is listener's knowledge.
>
> If listener knows that someone go but doesn't know that who go, speaker say
> "watashi ga iku".
> If listener knows that speaker do something but doesn't know that what does
> speaker do, speaker say "watashi wa iku".
>
> "watashi ga iku" and "watashi wa iku" is different at listener's knowledge.
>
> I think I can use "kau" to express the difference.
>
> "watashi ga iku" is "mi kau klama" and
> "watashi wa iku" is "mi klama kau".
>
> I think this usage of "kau" can be more general.
> The "kau" can express listener's knowledge.
>
> Is it right?
> I think it is very good definition of "kau".
>
> ki'e
> mi'e .iocikun.juj.
>
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