Subject: [lojban] Re: I am the man who wrote you a letter

From: "Newton, Philip" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 11:44:17 +0100

First off, thanks to all who responded.

Jordan DeLong wrote:
> A poi phrase type thing at the bridi level would just be done with
> gi'e. mi nanmu gi'e te xatra do.

Are those the same? I would think gi'e phrases are more like noi than like
poi -- I'm a man, and I wrote you a letter. But I'm not a [man who wrote you
a letter], or at least, I don't think the above bridi expresses that
concept.

Is gi'e more like noi or more like poi?

John Cowan wrote:
> In this particular case I would say "mi'e [le] nanmu poi te xatra do",
> but that doesn't generalize beyond "mi'e" and "doi".

OK, interesting. Actually, in the case I was looking at, this makes sense.
(Though as you say, this doesn't generalise, so it's useful to learn the
more general approach as well.)

Nora LeChevalier wrote:
> However, I agree with Robin Turner that "nanmu" would only be 
> used if that were important; otherwise, I'd leave it out altogether,
> getting:
> mi du le te xatra be do

Neat. Thanks. (Though in the case I had, the sex was important.)

Is it possible to put a {pu} in there, like {mi du le pu te xatra be do}?

What about indefinite references, though? That is, "I am *a* man who wrote a
letter to you?

If the sex is not important, only the letter-writing, then {mi pu te xatra
be do} works, but if you want to include "man" then you have to bring the
{poi}-ness in somehow. And then {mi du lo nanmu poi pu te xatra be do}
sounds wrong again -- and {mi nanmu gi'e pu te xatra be do} sounds more like
a {noi} connection than a {poi} one to me. Maybe {mi du pa le ro nanmu poi
pu te xatra be do} or something? Not sure whether {du} is correct in such a
case, since I'm not thinking of one letter-writing man in particular, only
stating that I am one such.

mu'omi'e filip.
[email copies appreciated, since I read the digest]
{ko fukpi mrilu fi mi ki'u le du'u mi te mrilu le notseljmaji}
-- 
filip.niutyn. <[email-masked]>
All opinions are my own, not my employer's.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.