Subject: Re: [lojban] gismu for attitudinals

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 00:18:50

Finding the right gismu or other brivla to describe in Lojban
what the attitudinal is used for is very necessary. When
we write a Lojban-Lojban dictionary (and hopefully it will be
sooner rather than later), we will have to explain in Lojban
the meaning of each attitudinal, and no doubt the word {gleki}
will be prominent in the explanation of what {ui} means.
This is of course not a dictionary definition, but I can say,
for example: {ca le nu mi cusku zo ui kei mi jarco le nu
mi gleki}. I think Rob's list is an excellent start. I will
only make some comments about a couple which I'm not sure I
agree with:

>.a'e mi cikna ku'i lenu ...

I don't know. I assume you mean {ki'u}, but I would think
{a'e} marks what you are alert about, rather than why you are
alert, or what made you alert. I don't recall seeing it in
use though.

>.ai mi ba gasnu lenu ...

I prefer {mi zukte fi le nu ...}

>.e'e mi certu lenu ...

This is not how I use {e'e}, and I have been using it often lately
(including in the Alice translation). I use it in the sense of
"encouragement", "you can do it!", "go for it!". This also fits
with the rest of the e-series as imperative-types.

>.e'i mi rinju fi lenu ...

There is one other imperative-type that I have often felt the need
for. I haven't found a simple way to express the "I dare you!"
attitude. I am always very tempted to enlist {e'i} for this service,
although it is harder to twist the keyword to fit it.

>.ei mi bilga lenu ...

{ei} is much more general than that. More like
{mi cinmo le nu le munje cu bilga le nu...}

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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