Subject: Re: Commands

From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email-masked]>
Date: 3 Aug 2001 18:31:56 -0000

Damn, yahoo ate my response again. wtf is going on?

--- In lojban@y..., "Craig" <ragnarok@p...> wrote:
> >"lets go" has a different solution, either using ".e'u" for suggestion with
> >a bridi, or if you want an assertive sense "doi mi'o ko cliva
> 
> Doesn't allowing .e'u or .e'o to make a command contradict actual usage,
> which is supposed to decide everything? The precedent is that an .e'o or
> .e'u still needs a ko to be a command - {.e'osai ko sarji la lojban.} for
> example.

I tend to be prescriptivist when I'm not watching anyway. But at any rate,
there is no contradiction. {.e'o} is an attitudinal. It means "I am
feeling requesting/commanding. Something about whatever this word is
attached to (which needn't be the whole sentence) is making me feel like
I'm requesting or ordering something." In the case of {e'osai ko sarji la
lojban.}, well, it IS a command, so that's understandable. The {e'o} here
serves only to emphasize that, and possibly soften the command into a
request. But that doesn't mean I can't say {e'o mi'o cliva}: I'm making a
request, that {mi joi do} leave (the veridicality of UI-marked jufra is
another matter). (Yes, this example could have been {mi joi ko cliva}).
And I can even say {.e'o ko'a cliva}, requesting (from whoever's listening)
that {ko'a} leave (perhaps I'm asking that ko'a be sent away?) 

> BTW, what (if anything) does "doi mi ko klama" mean?

Self-exhortation. You're talking to yourself and telling yourself to go.
Maybe with a different choice of brivla, {doi mi ko...} would be
appropriate in something like "Come on, hurry up, they're gaining on you!
Run faster!" said to *yourself*. Note, though, that that isn't strictly
true. {mi} does *N*O*T* means "I/me." It means "I/me/we/us." Pro-sumti
are not number-restricted! To be sure, when you use {mi}, there is a
certain unity of purpose implied, so {doi mi ko...} still is
self-exhortation. If you were addressing others in your "we"-group to do
something together with you, you should be saying {mi'o}={mi joi do}, since
{do} is by definition the people you're talking to. But {doi mi} basically
means you're talking to yourself (and let's face it, we've all been in
situations where that's the most intelligent conversation you're going to
get).

~mark