In a message dated 9/23/2002 7:44:12 AM Central Daylight Time, arosta@uclan.ac.uk writes: << I find it annoying that pointless prejudices, such as that in English against split infinitives, have taken root in Lojban culture too. Such a prejudice is >> The "prejudice against {du}" has two roots, at least. 1) The need to get people to start thinking predicately rather than argumently, seeing predicates as the main blocks, not nouns. In fewer words, breaking SAE grammar habits. 2) The logic of {du} espressions is more complex than that of predicates expressions and we like the simplicity. I suspect that And is right and that, should Lojban have an independent existence, {du} structures will appear spontaneously in many situations, emphasis being an obvious case. BUT while we are learning the language, we should learn the prescribed langauge; once we master it, we can do with it what we will. One of the reasons that I tolerate xorxes oddities -- while warning everyone else against them -- is precisely that xorxes has mastered the langauge, at least so far beyond anyone else now active that we are not in a position to criticize (except to note that it is not the Lojban we should be learning yet). [He is sometimes just flat wrong for all of that.]
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