From rob@twcny.rr.com Sat Jun 16 21:24:00 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_1_3); 17 Jun 2001 04:23:59 -0000 Received: (qmail 90960 invoked from network); 17 Jun 2001 04:23:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m8.onelist.org with QMQP; 17 Jun 2001 04:23:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailout1.nyroc.rr.com) (24.92.226.81) by mta1 with SMTP; 17 Jun 2001 04:23:59 -0000 Received: from mail1.twcny.rr.com (mail1-0.nyroc.rr.com [24.92.226.74]) by mailout1.nyroc.rr.com (8.11.2/RoadRunner 1.03) with ESMTP id f5H4Maf04724 for ; Sun, 17 Jun 2001 00:22:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from riff ([24.95.175.101]) by mail1.twcny.rr.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-59787U250000L250000S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Sun, 17 Jun 2001 00:11:07 -0400 Received: from rob by riff with local (Exim 3.22 #1 (Debian)) id 15BTrH-0000yl-00 for ; Sun, 17 Jun 2001 00:08:19 -0400 Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 00:08:19 -0400 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Sentence translation Message-ID: <20010617000819.A3671@twcny.rr.com> Reply-To: rob@twcny.rr.com References: <20010616193424.E14438@digitalkingdom.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20010616193424.E14438@digitalkingdom.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.18i X-Is-It-Not-Nifty: www.sluggy.com From: Rob Speer On Sat, Jun 16, 2001 at 07:34:24PM -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote: > I was trying to translate: > > "Get off my car or I'll crack your head open with this baseball bat." > > I chose to ignore 'baseball bat' in favor of 'big stick', but here's my > result: > > .o'onai ko na zutse lo mi karce seki'unai lo nu porpi le do stedu pi'o > lo barda grana > > Does seki'unai do what I want? Any other ways to handle it? > > -Robin Well, of course, I'd argue that logical connectives would make the point quite clear. .i ko co'u zutse lo mi karce .ijonai mi porpi ledo stedu pi'o levi barda grana I think {co'u} applies more than {na} here, because it is quite clear that the listener is sitting on the car already. The tenseless "Don't be sitting on my car" might be a bit difficult to fulfill. The .ijonai causes the sentence to mean: "Stop sitting on my car and I won't crack your head open with this baseball bat." and "Keep sitting on my car and I'll crack your head open with this baseball bat." simultaneously. And I think the listener will be certain which one he wants to make true. -- Rob Speer