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Imperative connectives
(John, you'll need to answer this first.)
This is a question that has come up in the Level 0 material, which I am
now finalising. I am asking it here, rather than on jboske (because it
is supplicative --- clarification requested from John, who wrote the
piece in question --- and presumably an already settled issue) or in
private email (because I want the answer on record.)
The question is, what is the proper interpretation of logical
connectives within imperatives.
The current text is:
How can Lojban logical connectives be used in imperative sentences?
Logical connectives work properly only on complete sentences, and of
those, only those which actually assert something.
There is a special imperative pronoun
<foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">ko</foreignphrase>. This is a second
person pronoun logically equivalent to <foreignphrase
lang="art-lojban">do</foreignphrase>, the normal Lojban word for <quote
role="gloss">you</quote>, but
conveying an imperative sense. Thus, an imperative can be understood as
commanding the listener to make the assertion true which results when
<foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">ko</foreignphrase> is replaced by
<foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">do</foreignphrase>.</para>
For example, <foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">ko
sisti</foreignphrase> (<quote role="gloss">Stop!</quote>) is logically
equivalent to <foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">do sisti</foreignphrase>
(<quote role="gloss">you stop</quote>), and pragmatically may be
understood
as <quote>Make <quote><foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">do
sisti</foreignphrase></quote> true!</quote>. This allows logical
connection to be
used in imperatives without loss of clarity or generality; the logical
connection applies to the assertion which is in effect embedded in the
imperative.</para>
By way of clarification, I wish to add:
<para>So <foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">ko
sisti .inaja mi ceclygau</foreignphrase> would seem to mean
<quote>Stop or I'll
shoot</quote>, but actually means <quote>bring about a situation
whereby,
if you don't stop, I'll shoot</quote> — not quite the same
thing. The sense
of <quote>stop or I'll shoot</quote> is properly conveyed by the
phrase <foreignphrase lang="art-lojban">.i lenu do na sisti .e'u cu
rinka lenu mi
ceclygau</foreignphrase> — similar to what we saw above.</para>
Is this a misunderstanding? And if so, what *is* the Lojban for "Stop
or I'll shoot"?
###
Momenton senpretende paseman mi retenis kaj # Dr NICK NICHOLAS.
kultis kvazaux # French & Italian,
senhorlogxan elizeon # Univ. of Melbourne
(Dume: # nickn@unimelb.edu.au
[Victor Sadler, _Memkritiko_ 90] # http://www.opoudjis.net