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Re: [lojban] Re: Non-logical (incidental) "if"?



John Cowan wrote:
Randall Nortman scripsit:


 I'm going to the store if you want to come along.

This is clearly not a logical if-then statement.  This is, "I'm going
to the store now, which is relevant to your decision to go to the
store because my going to the store makes it more convenient for you
to go to the store."  Of course, one could just say:

 mi klama le zarci .i xu do klama

But this does not fully capture the sentiment of the English.  Is
there a more elegant way?

I like "mi klama le zarci .iju do klama".  The force of the English
"...whether or not you are coming" sounds like I don't care what you  do,
but this implicature is *not* present in the Lojban version.

That's logically correct, but not very, er, Gricean. This calls for an attitudinal, not a logical connector, I think.

robin.tr

--
"A free man ought not to learn anything under duress.
Compulsory physical exercise does no harm to the body,
but compulsory learning never sticks in the mind." - Plato

Robin Turner
IDMYO,
Bilkent University
Ankara 06533
Turkey

www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin