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Re: [lojban] observatives (was RE: a construal of lo'e & le'e



At 07:10 PM 10/28/01 +0000, And Rosta wrote:
john:
> Rob Speer scripsit:
> > Of course, {stedu ro remna} would work,
>
> I don't think this works either:  "Look! A head of every man!"

Is it a rule of interpretation that a zo'e x1 in the main bridi
is interpreted as an observative? I'd prefer the Loglan system
where a bare sumti is an observative (which allows the le/lo
contrast to be exploited), and for zo'e x1 in main bridi to be
no different in its effects than zo'e elsewhere.

Not a "rule" per se, but a convention, just as the "story-time" convention applies to interpreting the tense of most instances of consecutive sentences. There are other possible uses for ellipsis x1 besides an observative, but that is the one most likely. Note that it is ellipsis in x1 that marks the observative, and not explicit zo'e in x1. Part of the magic of the convention is the pragmatic emphasis on the selbri caused by fronting it.

lojbab
--
lojbab                                             lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                    703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:                 http://www.lojban.org