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

[John E Clifford <clifford-j@sbcglobal.net>]

So, "obligation" is (not surprisingly) ambiguous in pretty much the way "promise" is: it can mean
either the thing one is obliged to or something else -- roughly the fact that one is so obliged. 
All of this suggests that we may want to rethink just how the Lojban words {nupre, bilga} and
maybe others are related to the English.  {nupre} is fine for the speech act, perhaps, but has to
be used with care in translating other expressions involving "promise."  Incidentally, the use of
"promise" for the thing promised is becoming stranger and stranger to my ear: as it is claimed for
various contexts, it seems less and less plausible at home. "I got what he promised me" means
something very different from "I got his promise to me," for example.   

--- Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 1/5/07, Cyril Slobin <slobin@ice.ru> wrote:
> >
> > > A network of obligations might be {lo gunma be lo se bilga}.
> >
> > No. {le gumna be lo nu bilga}, not {... lo se bilga}.
> 
> But it is {lo se bilga} that are the obligations, not {lo nu se bilga}.
> 
> For example, giving you a bicycle might be my obligation,
> my being obliged to give you a bicycle is not my obligation.
> 
> mu'o mi'e xorxes
> 
> 
> To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org
> with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if
> you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.
> 
> 



To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org
with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if
you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.