[lojban-beginners] Re: What does la'e mean?

[Yuval Harel <yuvalh@hotpop.com>]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 19:14:51 -0700 (PDT), Jorge "Llambías 
<jjllambias2000@yahoo.com.ar> wrote:

> la iuvál cusku di'e
>
> > 1) Operating on a name, la'e transforms it into the/a referent of that 
> > name, e.g. {mi tcidu la'e zoi gy. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul 
> > .gy.}.
>
> It would be more proper to say {mi tcidu la'o gy. The Long Dark Tea-Time 
> of the soul gy}.
Yet The Reference Grammar gives:
"
mi viska la'e zoi kuot. A Tale of Two Cities .kuot I see that-represented- 
by the-text `` A Tale of Two Cities ''. I see the book ``A Tale of Two 
Cities''
"
in chapter 20.

> > This usage maintains {da cmene la'e da} for all {da}.
>
> {la'e lu le gerku li'u} is the referent of "le gerku",
> i.e. the dog, it is not something named "the dog".
Yet The Reference Grammar gives:
"
	10.3)    mi viska la'e lu le xunre cmaxirma li'u
	I see the-referent-of
       [quote] the red small-horse [unquote]		
"
and says this means seeing something named "The Red Pony" rather than
something described as a red pony.

[...]

> > 2) Operating on an utterance, la'e transforms it into the/a meaning of 
> > that utterance. From what Iv'e seen, it appears that la'e in la'edi'u is 
> > always understood to have that meaning. For example {mi tcidu lo cukta 
> > .i la'edi'u xamgu} is understood to mean that my reading of the book is 
> > good, not that something named "I read a book" is good, as expected by 
> > interpretation no. 1. This usage maintains {la'e da smuni da} for all 
> > {da}.
>
> That is the idea. Otherwise, how would we say the "that" of {la'e di'u}?
How about {lesu'u go'i}?

[...]

mu'o mi'e iuvál.