Subject: Re: [lojban] Phrases for language learners

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 08:51:09 -0400 (EDT)

Newton, Philip scripsit:

> Maybe I'll think about it a bit more, but it seems to me at the moment that
> lo'u...le'u is more general (and perhaps more useful especially in such
> asking-about-language-and-usage contexts) than lu...li'u.

For human interlocutors, it makes little difference which one you use.
The main benefit of the distinction between lu/li'u and lo'u/le'u is
for machines, who can infer from

la simon. cusku lu la djefris. mlatu li'u

that Simon asserted *that* Jeffry is a cat, whereas from

la simon. cusku lo'u la djefris. mlatu le'u

they can only infer that Simon said something or other.

-- 
John Cowan [email-masked] www.ccil.org/~cowan www.reutershealth.com
"The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own
skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among
other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague." --Edsger Dijkstra