[lojban] Re: What does "anyway" mean anyway?

["Mark E. Shoulson" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

Matt Arnold wrote:

> On jboselkei, Yanis attempted to translate "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
> but he doesn't know the English idiom of attaching "anyway" to a
> question.
>
> Attempting to explain it to him has confused me. I think it means that
> the question being asked is at a deeper level than whatever the
> conversation was about before. "Anyway" might be synonymous with "in
> any case" or "after all." Would we translate it with {.uanai}?

It sounds to me like this idiom uses "anyway" to signify "I (or you) 
thought I knew the answer to this, or at least I should have known it, 
but I don't."  Almost a {.ue} moment: waitasec, it turns out I don't 
know it.  (I'm having trouble defending this interpretation to myself, 
and yet it really does seem to be right.  "Whose line is it?" is an 
ordinary question.  "Whose line is it anyway?" is a different animal).  
It isn't a simple idiom to translate (most aren't), and it may simply 
not be translatable in a way that preserves the humor.

Hmm... Were I to translate this into Hebrew, I would use a word that 
means something like "at all".  Maybe the meaning is "whose line is it, 
if it's anyone's at all."  Consider that "anyway" added to a yes/no 
question doesn't do this: "is he coming anyway?" is a normal question 
with "anyway" modifying the conditions under which he might come.  So 
maybe there's something like "is this question really even valid to 
start with?  Should you be answering it with {na'i}?"

Whatever.  Stuff to ponder.

~mark



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