Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: cmavo for emphasis?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 09:30:30 EDT

In a message dated 9/23/2002 7:44:12 AM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

<<
> I find it annoying that pointless prejudices, such as that in English 
> against split infinitives, have taken root in Lojban culture too. Such a 
> prejudice is
> that against {du}.
>>
The "prejudice against {du}" has two roots, at least. 1) The need to get 
people to start thinking predicately rather than argumently, seeing 
predicates as the main blocks, not nouns. In fewer words, breaking SAE 
grammar habits. 2) The logic of {du} espressions is more complex than that of 
predicates expressions and we like the simplicity.
I suspect that And is right and that, should Lojban have an independent 
existence, {du} structures will appear spontaneously in many situations, 
emphasis being an obvious case. BUT while we are learning the language, we 
should learn the prescribed langauge; once we master it, we can do with it 
what we will. One of the reasons that I tolerate xorxes oddities -- while 
warning everyone else against them -- is precisely that xorxes has mastered 
the langauge, at least so far beyond anyone else now active that we are not 
in a position to criticize (except to note that it is not the Lojban we 
should be learning yet). [He is sometimes just flat wrong for all of that.]