Whatever

["Jorge Llambias" <jjllambias@hotmail.com>]

I think I have discovered what makau means when it appears
in the main clause and not inside a du'u. It means "whatever".
At least in some contexts it does.

Let's consider first a ju-sentence:

mi ba te vecnu ta iju ta rupnu makau
I will buy that, whatever it costs.

In other words, whatever the answer to "how much does that
cost?" is, I will buy it. This works because ju prevents
the second sentence from being a claim. A claim could never
contain makau because nothing would be claimed, or rather,
it becomes a tautology, since obviously the true answer to
the question, whatever it is, has to be true.

{xukau} is indeed the tautology marker, so {da'au} is not
necessary. Since ju by itself changes whatever follows into
a tautology, it is not necessary to use xukau there, but it
doesn't hurt either:

mi ba te vecnu ta i [ju/xukau] ta kargu
I will buy that, whether or not it is expensive.

{xukau} would be an alternative to {ju}.

Other contexts that allow this main clause use of kau are
certain attitudinals:

ui makau klama le zarci
Happy! Whoever goes to the store.

Whatever the true answer to "who goes to the store?" is, I'm
happy about it.

e'a do lebna makau
Permission! Whatever you take.

Comments?

mu'o mi'e xorxes




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