[lojban] Re: ta'o

[Robert LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 05:32 AM 1/21/03 -0500, BestATN@aol.com wrote:
>i don't believe that
>
>'ta'o    UI3    by the way discursive: by the way - returning to main 
>point; (cf. denpa, cneterta'a) '
>
>has to be built on a metaphor.  let its literal meaning be simply 
>"resuming the main point".

ta'o is "by the way" (or "DEVIATING from the main point")
ta'onai is "resuming the main point"

There are any number of metaphors that could have been used to suggest the 
cmavo, but none would have been especially good lojbanically - the 
discursive function represented by ta'o should be a lujvo  (something like 
"touching-topic" or "topic-leaving"; "intersecting" is at least as good a 
metaphor as tangential for what is going on conversationally)

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



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