On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 4:30 PM, Luke Bergen
<lukeabergen@gmail.com> wrote:
How would lojban differentiate between "I'm surprised that you said 'that'" (emphasis on 'that' as opposed to saying 'this') vs "I'm surprised that you said 'that'" (emphasis on 'said' as opposed to 'wrote' or 'thought')?
My first thought was {ba'e} but my understanding of {ba'e} is that it's just there for emphasis and carries no additional semantic meaning (similar to how {lo nanmu cu klama lo zarci} is semantically identical to {lo zarci cu se klama lo nanmu}). And as I understand it the two sentences in English mean entirely different things. They are not only different in their emphasis.
I'm not sure how clearly this question is coming through. It could probably have stood to percolate in my head a while more but I don't want to forget it (again).
mi'e pafcribe
No, your first thought was exactly correct. ba'e emphasizes the next word, thereby singling it out as important.
--gejyspa