Re: [lojban-beginners] "Should" and "would"

Just before writing that, I noticed that {.e'u} works for some present/future tense "should" instances. "It's a good book; you should read it." can be translated with a simple {.e'u ko broda} or {mi stidi lo nu do broda}. But this is not easy to turn into a "should have". Maybe "I would have suggested..." is a better way to think of it (somehow incorporating the {stidi} solution). So now I'll look at that "would".

{va'o} seems to be a good fit for if... would statements. I've come across the fact that abstractions are not necessarily true before. As for {da'i} I haven't understood before what it means. It's listed as "supposing", but, as a UI, it can't create the structures I'd expect from "supposing". To me, "supposing" is usually used in "supposing that x, y", where x is the supposed fact and y is the main statement. But I suppose (zo'o) that your explanation makes sense.

I don't understand how you've used {mu'ei}. How can we claim things about every alternate history? What if in one of them you had different parents, and inherited a few selfishness genes (assuming that this alternate person could be considered "you", and not a child from that other parent - be'o - who was not born either). I fear I may have misunderstood completely.

On Sunday, October 28, 2012 8:05:40 PM UTC, selpa'i wrote:

Am 28.10.2012 20:27, schrieb mudri:
> Is there any way in Lojban to talk about what one should do, should have
> done or would do in a given event? I've been looking for a while, but
> can't find anything.

For "should", the word {.ei} is usually used:

.ei do xendo lo cnino
You should be kind to strangers.

.ei do ta pu na lebna
You should not have taken that.

.ei mi ma zukte
What should I do?

For "would", it's slightly more difficult. "Would" usually marks a
phrase as non-factual, which is done by {da'i}:

ju'o da'i do se pluka
You would surely enjoy it.

da'i do se xamgu
It would be good for you.

Sometimes, the "would" appears together with an if-clause, in which case
a {da'i} isn't always needed:

mi va'o lo nu [da'i] mi jipci cu na kuckla lo dargu
If I was a chicken, I wouldn't cross the road.

Here the {da'i} is not strictly needed, because the event tagged by va'o
is not claimed by the speaker. The {da'i} can be used to add emphasis on
the non-factualness of the sentence, however.

There is also a less common way for "would" that uses {mu'ei}:

lo nu sidju lo drata kei mi ro mu'ei pluka
I would always enjoy helping others.

mi no mu'ei lo du'u do mi slabu cu na djica lo nu mi do speni
In no world in which I know you would I not want to marry you.

Hope this helps.

mu'o mi'e la selpa'i

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