Re: [lojban] Had Obama used KOhA...

[Jonathan Jones <eyeonus@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 12:48 AM, tijlan <jbotijlan@gmail.com> wrote:

coi lo jibni be lo fanmo be li 2012

Ranked second in Politifact's "Lie of the Year" is a Mitt Romney campaign video, which quote-mined Obama as saying:

"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

The video aimed to make it appear as though Obama was attributing success to the government and not to the people. The quote's actual context:

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

What he meant by "that" that you didn't build, then, would be "roads and bridges". The pro-noun however *can* technically refer to the business that you've got as well, and the Romney campaign (let alone Fox News) took this anaphoric ambiguity to their advantage.

Had the presidential race taken place in Lojbanistan, would such quote-mining have been possible? Which KOhA would Obama have used for "that"?

mu'o

I couldn't just guess which pro-sumti he'd use if he'd been speaking in Lojban, so I decided to take a crack at translating it and figure it out that way. Of course, this still wouldn't likely be what he'd have said, unless of course I was his speech writer.

My translation is a bit "Ugh" in my opinion, mainly because I was trying to keep the sentiment (not the exact words, mind you, but the ideas and the order in which they are presented), which made the third sentence especially clunky in my eyes. I'm certain, if I cared enough to bother, that I could render a more supple translation, but I think suffices:

{
.i ganai do pu snada gi ca lo pu mokca ku da sidju do .i lo balctu pu pagbu lo do nunji'e

.i de pu sidju fi lonu zbasu le ka na krici kei merko ciste be fi'o ponse ma'a be'o poi gaurka'e lonu do snada

.i di pu zivle fi lo dargu .e lo cripu .i ganai do ponse lo kagni gi do na zbasu lo te go'i

.i su'o drata be do prenu pu gasnu lo nu zbasu
}

BTW, in this translation, the first "that" is translated with {lo te go'i}, and the second with {zo'e} (elided).
-- 
mu'o mi'e .aionys.

.i.e'ucai ko cmima lo pilno be denpa bu .i doi.luk. mi patfu do zo'o
(Come to the Dot Side! Luke, I am your father. :D )

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