From arosta@uclan.ac.uk Tue Sep 25 08:54:56 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: arosta@uclan.ac.uk X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2_2); 25 Sep 2001 15:53:57 -0000 Received: (qmail 43882 invoked from network); 25 Sep 2001 15:47:24 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by 10.1.1.221 with QMQP; 25 Sep 2001 15:47:24 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO com1.uclan.ac.uk) (193.61.255.3) by mta1 with SMTP; 25 Sep 2001 15:48:22 -0000 Received: from gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk by com1.uclan.ac.uk with SMTP (Mailer); Tue, 25 Sep 2001 16:25:42 +0100 Received: from DI1-Message_Server by gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 25 Sep 2001 16:56:38 +0100 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 16:56:24 +0100 To: lojbab , cowan Cc: lojban Subject: Re: [lojban] Dumb answers to good questions Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline From: And Rosta >>> "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" 09/24/01 10:28pm #>>> #At 10:50 PM 9/23/01 -0400, John Cowan wrote: #>Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) scripsit: #> #> > OK, then bi'u/bi'unai is indeed the focus marker, since it marks the p= iece #> > of key information as being either new or old information. Just=20 #> marking it #> > says that it is key, of course. #> #>I don't think so: consider "It was George who hit the (bi'u) man." # #I don't get it. You could literally translate that into Lojban, with the= =20 #bi'u as marked, but why is the bi'u there if NOT to mark focus, and if "It= =20 #was George" that is the focus, and presumably the key information, why is= =20 #it *not* marked - I mean if the listener already knows it, it isn't that=20 #important, and "the man" presumably is; and if the listener doesn't know=20 #it, and you are bothering to mark bi'u, then it should be marked. The example should be "hit a/this bi'u man" or "hit the bi'unai man" George is focus. 'a'/'bi'u' indicates that the man has been referred to=20 already and is not being introduced into the discourse for the first time. You add bi'u(nai) to guide the addressee in identifying the referent. --And.