Re: Indirect questions

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

>Date:         Wed, 19 Nov 1997 12:43:34 GMT+0
>From: And Rosta <a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK>
>Organization: University of Central Lancashire
>
>> >> >>     da poi danfu lu xu mi badri li'u zo'u ko'a djuno da
>> >> >
>> >> >A somewhat off-topic question, but maybe this should
>> >> >be "...danfu la'e lu xu mi badri li'u"?
>> >> Yes, definitely.
>> >I don't see why. {lu xu mi badri li`u} itself refers to a question.
>>
>> Yes, a morphological question, but I think that's not what we
>> want.
>
>I mean that the text {xu mi badri} is itself an act of questioning,
>in the same way as "hello" and "coi" are verbal acts of greeting.
>
>> {lu xu se badri mi li'u} is different from {lu xu mi badri li'u}
>> for example. They're different questions morphologically, but
>> they mean the same thing. It's the meaning that interests me.
>
>They're different texts, but they're both questions, and they
>both are questions about the same thing.

That's what made me think of "la'e".  They're different texts, and I
thought that lu...li'u referred to the actual text, the stuff between the
quotes.  Unless you actually said the precise words, I couldn't say "do
bacru lu xu mi badri li'u" any more than I can say "do bacru zoi
ky. bI'IQ'a'? ky."  Unless the actual words are being used, it must be
their meaning that's used.  And that calls for la'e, qar'a'?  Or did I
misunderstand how lu/li'u work?  Does the selbri make a difference?

~mark