Subject: Re: [lojban] SE--FA interaction

From: And Rosta <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:16:06 +0000

>>> <[email-masked]> 10/30/01 09:56pm >>>
[email-masked] writes:
#<The discussion of word orders has prompted me to revive a once-abandoned
#exercise of working out the easiest way to order 5 sumti places (i) in a bridi
#for each relevant possible position of the selbri, and (ii) in a sumti tail 
#(where
#selbri position is fixed and x1 can't be fa-tagged).
#
#> Has anybody ever bothered to do this before & written up the results?>
#
#I don't understand the two cases. The position of the selbri seems 
#irrelevant except when before the first occurring sumti, where it will force 
#a {fa} on the first sumti if it were the first place (it would be required 
#anyhow if it were any ohter).  

So there are two relevant possible positions. 

#Case ii looks to be just like case i with all 
#the places moved up -- and so one more complex FA and one more complex SE to 
#handle 6-place predicates.
#Does easiest mean "fewest ordering words", "fewest ordering syllable" or 
#"conceptually simplest devise"? The latter is almost always going to be FA 
#plain, except otherwise unmodified SE.

All of those. The optimal balance of brevity and conceptual simplicity. To
me, the balance is not obvious. On the one hand I try to avoid fa tags
when they are evitable, while on the other hand my mind gets all tangled
up by place structure rules.

--And.