Subject: Re: UI for 'possible' (was: Re: [lojban] Bible translation style question)

From: "Adam Raizen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 23:32:26 +0200

la .and. cusku di'e

> I agree that "sei cumki" is the UI-like way to say "possibly".
>
> However, what you describe as 'shifting focus' is actually in some
cases
> a shift also in truth conditions. The 'logical' way to defocalize
superstructure
> would be to leave the logical structure in standard selbri + sumti
form, and
> to indicate (de)focalization by means of UI.

In what way can it shift truth conditions? The only possibility I can
think of would be in cases where the selbrivla does not claim the
subsentence, as in 'cumki'. If you claim that 'sei cumki mi klama'
claims that mi klama, then clearly that has a different truth value
than 'le nu mi klama cu cumki'; however, there are many UI which
change the truth value, so I don't see any reason why 'sei' clauses
must be different. Also, I consider 'sei cumki mi klama' to be the
same as 'le nu kau mi klama cu cumki' (using 'kau' for the
focus-marking UI), at least until someone objects or comes up with
something better.

Is there another way that truth conditions can be affected?

mu'o mi'e .adam.