[lojban] Re: Duty, promice etc...

[John E Clifford <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

I am not sure that these sentences need to be treated just like the English; that is, I am not
sure that the nouns "promise" and "duty" need to be represented as such in the Lojban.  To do
one's duty is to do what one is pbligated to do by virtue of one's position in some scheme; to
break ones promise is to fail to do (when the opportunity arises) what one is obligated to do by
virtue of one's verbal commitment to do it.  So both of them are about doing the se bilga and
differ only in the te bilga (I suppose that is).  In the case of promises, we have another word
which enfolds the obligation and its ground into one, {nupre}.  As for the English, the words
"promise" and "duty" are polysemous, covering the making of the promise, what is promised and some
abstraction (don't we have a generic abstraction operator? Yes, {su'u}) which combines what is
promised with the whole network of conditions which making a promise calls into being.  This last
is probably best summed up in "the sate of being obligated to do whatever by virtue of a promise".
But I don't think it plays a direct role in expressing the otion of breaking a promise.
 
--- Cyril Slobin <slobin@ice.ru> wrote:

> coi rodo
> 
> How to translate nouns like "duty" or "promise"? Or, more precise, how
> to translate sentences  like "She does her duty" or "He breaks his
> promise"? I believe the answer has something to do with "bilga" and
> "nupre", but what exactly? "le se nupre" is "what is promised", not
> promise itself. Promise is not an event ("le nu nupre"), not a
> statement ("le du'u nupre"), it is something else. But what?
> 
> ... Veni narratum i quentam mirabilem vobis ...
> 
> -- 
> Cyril Slobin <lj user="slobin">
> 
> 
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