[lojban] "If", da'i, and mu'ei

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

I've been pondering subjunctives ("I'll go if you go") for a few
days now, and have come to the following conclusions that I randomly
feel like sharing:

1.  Doing them in bridi is pretty easy; {lakne} and {cumki} both
work very well.

2.  What I had been doing, which is {da'i}, does not; {da'i mi klama
mu'i lo nu do klama} can be translated as I said, but it could also
be translated as "maybe I go because you go", which is sort-of
right?, but isn't obviously subjunctive.  The problem is that {da'i}
can be used for simply-untrue stuff, rather than untrue stuff that
is tied to the rest of the sentence and could be true under the right
conditions.

3.  I finally read up on mu'ei ( http://www.lojban.org/tiki/mu'ei ).
I like it.  I think I'll start using it.

4.  Whoever first called logical conditionals "if" in English needs
to be stabbed over and over and over.

-Robin

-- 
http://singinst.org/ :  Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.
Lojban (http://www.lojban.org/): The language in which "this parrot
is dead" is "ti poi spitaki cu morsi", but "this sentence is false"
is "na nei".   My personal page: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/rlp/

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