Re: [lojban] Dumb answers to good questions

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/20/2001 9:42:47 AM Central Daylight Time, arosta@uclan.ac.uk writes:

I'd momentarily forgotten in my previous message that kau is
supposed to be a focus marker. It's true that wh elements are
focused:

Who hit Bill?
for x such that x hit Bill, x = what?

but at the same time, IF qkau is valid lojban for indirect questions then
kau cannot be a mere focus marker and must instead be the magic thingy
that makes direct q-words indirect. Things'd probably be semantically/logically
neater if kau were the focus marker and qkau for indirect questions were invalid,
but that'd invalidate a HELL of lot of usage!

The cmavo list says that {kau} is focus in INDIRECT questions, so it does not have a defined function in DIRECT questions (which are, presumably, syntactically distinct). Indeed, the Refgram has {kau} as "indirect question marker."  This seems to preclude its use in DIRECT questions altogether.  But the Refgram also uses it for a peculiar kind of emphasis -- the question and the answer, which would work indirectly, I suppose.  But is too atrocious a usage to carry over to direct questions as well.

Surely, fronting with {zo'u} and emphasis with {ba'e} provide enough material to take care of the problem. (The corresponding things do in English, apparently.)