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

["Chris Capel" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

> On 5/19/06, Mark E. Shoulson <mark@kli.org> wrote:
> > 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}?"

I'm not sure how you would translate it, but I think I can take a stab
at defining the idiom. It's a conversational marker used to indicate
that the expression it attaches to applies across distinctions or
specifics that were earlier being considered. For instance, if I'm
trying to decide what I want to do today, and I think up three
different activities, and all of a sudden I realize "Oh, I don't know
where my wife is", then I'm going to wonder "Where is she, anyway?"
because that knowledge will affect my plans in any case.

In the title, "Whose line is it, anyway?", the prior specifics would
be whatever question about intonation or script or blocking or
motivation that was just being discussed, and the "anyway" would
indicate that that discussion is over and the rehearsal is moving on.

Actually, trash that. It seems inadequate. Here's another theory:
"anyway" is a discursive that indicates a change of subject, where the
new subject is somehow more important than the old one. Perhaps the
new subject is wider or more general (and thus potentially makes the
old subject irrelevant), or more concrete, or having more to do with
present circumstances ("Anyway, should we get lunch?"), or related to
a subject earlier (and by implication more primary) in the
conversation, than with whatever abstractions were just being
discussed or contemplated.

Yeah, that sounds right.

On 5/19/06, Theodore Reed <ted.reed@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Is he coming anyway?" indicates to me that there are adverse conditions for
> his coming, and the questioner wants to know if he will come despite the
> conditions. This interpretation doesn't seem to work with the "Whose Line"
> bit, however.

I think this is a separate sense of "anyway", and would be listed
separately in a dictionary that actually defined it well.

Chris Capel
--
"What is it like to be a bat? What is it like to bat a bee? What is it
like to be a bee being batted? What is it like to be a batted bee?"
-- The Mind's I (Hofstadter, Dennet)


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