Subject: [lojban] Re: Let's be friends

From: Robin Turner <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 23:35:35 +0200

Jordan DeLong wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 11:52:54AM +0200, Robin Turner wrote:
> 
>>Jordan DeLong wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
>>>Both na'e and na are correct here, they just make slightly different
>>>claims.
>>
>>Yes. What I meant to say was "It is not true that I use Windows", but 
>>what I said was "I do-something-other-than-use Windows". It's a subtle 
>>difference, but the latter implies that there is a relationship between 
>>me and Windows other than "use" - maybe I don't use it any more but 
>>still have nightmares about it.
> 
> 
> sa'enai ci'i bu'a zo'u do la .uindoz. bu'a
> 
True, but I think Gricean maxims require that I have some vaguely 
relevant selbri in mind. If I've understood this sentence correctly, 
I'd be inclined to say {sa'e} here rather than {sa'enai} _Strictly 
speaking_ an infinite number of relationships may exist between me and 
Windows, but in practice only a few of them are worthy of comment.

The classic example for {na'e} is

mi na'e nelci la djan.

as a translation of the English "I don't like John" (since {mi na nelci 
la djan.} would be true if I had never met John at all. There is a 
strong sense that the selbri that would replace {nelci} is in the same 
broad semantic area. Thus

mi na'e nelci la djan. .i mi xebni ri

is pretty normal, and

mi na'e nelci la djan. .i mi prami ri

is also fine (think of the Men At Work song, "I don't like cricket - I 
love it!"). However,

mi na'e nelci la djan. .i mi viska ri

is a bit weird, I think.

robin.tr

-- 
"Do unto others what you would like others to do unto you. And have fun 
doing it."
- Linus Torvalds

Robin Turner
IDMYO,
Bilkent University
Ankara 06533
Turkey

www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin