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Re: [lojban] TECH: Question about grammar of sumti

On 5/27/07, Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com> wrote:


what does {lo ci (ko'a .e ko'e)} mean?


I have asked a similar question some years back, but I have failed to
find that my letter in maillist archive now. :-( So I don't remember
what example confused me at that time. The general idea is: {ko'a .e
ko'e broda} is a shorthand for {ko'a broda .ije ko'e broda}. But what
if {ko'a .e ko'e} is not an immediate argument of an outermost bridi,
but is buried deep into the nested bridi, abstractions, descriptions
and so on? One possible answer is "split the outermost bridi". Than
{lo ci ko'a .e ko'e cu broda} means {lo ci ko'a cu broda .ije lo ci
ko'e cu broda}. Other answer is "split the innermost... what?"
Innermost bridi? I am not ready to explore this second possibility
right now. On the other hand, the "outermost" rule makes the meaning
of a text non-local, not determinable from text itself. Not good. :-(

--
Cyril Slobin <slobin@ice.ru> `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said,
<http://45.free.net/~slobin> `it means just what I choose it to mean'