Re: [lojban-beginners] [fanva] "Water freezes at zero degrees Celsius, doesn't it?"

[Remo Dentato <rdentato@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 4:42 AM, Oren <get.oren@gmail.com> wrote:
> Submitting this to tatoeba, please correct as necessary!
>
> "Water freezes at zero degrees Celsius, doesn't it?"
> { lo djacu ku dunja lo jacke'o be li no .i xu na go'i }

To me the "doesn't it?" part is only due to the way English is
structured so I would consider {xu na go'i} slightly malglico.
Actually I thought that when in English one adds "doesn't it?", "isn't
it", "right?", etc. most of the times is a rethorical question.

> In general, what other ways are there to 'lojbanically' say:
> "bla bla bla bla, right?"

I support the {vau} suggestion that also would allow us to easily
distinguish between real and rethorical questions:

{ lo djacu ku dunja lo jacke'o be li no vau xu }
{ lo djacu ku dunja lo jacke'o be li no vau paunai } (rethorical question)
{ xu lo djacu ku dunja lo jacke'o be li no }

The first one would be a real question that also conveys a sort of
doubt: I think I know the answer but I ask to be sure.
The second one is a rethorical question.
The third is a direct question.

Well, actually the third and the first are very similar, but, after
all, they are both real questions, it's just a matter of style that we
want to suggest a different "emphasis" by placing the "xu" at the end.

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