Subject: [lojban] Re: cmavo for emphasis?

From: Jordan DeLong <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:13:19 -0500

On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 01:42:17PM +0100, And Rosta wrote:
> Jay:
> #On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 01:26:08AM +0100, And Rosta wrote:
> #> Viktoro [mailto:[email-masked]] 
> #> > Are there particles for showing emphasis?
> #> > 
> #> > In English, we use a stronger voice to show emphasis in sentences 
> #> > like:
> #> > 
> #> > "The *dog* bit the postman."
> #> > 
> #> > "The dog bit the *postman*."
> #> > 
> #> > "The dog *bit* the postman."
> #> > 
> #> > How does one indicate emphasis? By word order or what?
> #
> #ba'e before the word, in all these cases. Only And's third example
> #would actually suggest emphasis to those using the language. The
> #others appear as simply being contorted.
> 
> Whereas to speakers of natural languages the world over, the kind
> of 'contortion' used in my examples is one of the most common strategies
> of focus marking. 

Thankfully it is not the strategy used by lojban, however. Neither
is using a stronger voice.

> It must be remembered that "those using the language" are using it at
> a level comparable to beginners level in natlangs, and without the
> advantage of models of fluent 'native-like' usage to emulate.
> Learning Lojban by emulating current usage is like going to learn
> English in, say, a ghetto in London populated by people who have
> immigrated from Kurdistan in the last five years.

This is irrelevant. You can ignore ba'e if you want, but it is the
*only* way to actually emph words. Varied word order will make
people pay attention to different aspects of your sentence, but it
doesn't allow for saying the same sentence with different emph (as
the OP clearly wanted).

-- 
Jordan DeLong - [email-masked]
lu zo'o loi censa bakni cu terzba le zaltapla poi xagrai li'u
sei la mark. tuen. cusku