Re: UI for 'possible' (was: Re: [lojban] Bible translation style question)

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/31/2002 8:51:00 AM Central Standard Time, xod@sixgirls.org writes:

And ui, while not propositional (because the definition of "propositional"
used on this list is completely arbitrary), doesn't necessarily affect the
truth value. And, to utter "sei gleki" is an _expression_ of an emotional
state.

About the only thing that can defensibly be said is that "gleki" is a
brivla while "ui" is not.

The definition is, of course, that given by logic and so not arbitrary in a language explicitly based on logic. UI by and large don't affect truth values, they have truth-value preconditions in some cases and they remove items from truth value consideration in some cases, but they don't change from one value to another.  The {sei} expressions seem to function like that (I'm not sure about taking things out of truth value consideration).  In the particular case of {ui} and {gleki}, you can also say that {ui ko'a broda} and {mi gleki lenu ko'a broda} differ not only in focus but in truth conditions: the first is true or false regardless of my state of happiness, the second depends upon that state (and maybe not on {ko'a broda}).