Subject: Re: [lojban] kona, but not the coffee

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 11:33:08 EDT

In a message dated 6/17/2001 5:11:13 AM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> when you say "ko na bacru", are you saying "shut up", or just 
> saying "it is not true that i am asking you to utter"? what it be 
> any different for the prenex version (na ku zo'u ko bacru)?
> 
> i think it should be the latter. then to say shut up, just use ko 
> na'e bacru.
> 

And the poison spreads! If you say {ko ...} you are not making a claim but 
issuing a command (a directive, with whatever powerplay additions you can 
manage). So, in particular you are not saying "I am asking you to...;" that 
would a bridi whose agent term is {mi}. Nor does the position of the {na} 
make any difference -- the sentence remains a directive. There a dozens of 
uses of bridi, most of them fairly clearly marked in Lojban. One way to mark 
directives in Lojban is to use {ko} ({e'o} and {e'u} also work). Directive 
language is inherently not assertive, it makes no claim. It does presuppose 
that what is being directed to occur is not known to be occurring at the 
moment.