From jjllambias@hotmail.com Sun Aug 05 15:16:05 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: jjllambias@hotmail.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_2_0); 5 Aug 2001 22:16:04 -0000 Received: (qmail 62237 invoked from network); 5 Aug 2001 22:16:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 5 Aug 2001 22:16:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO hotmail.com) (216.33.241.95) by mta2 with SMTP; 5 Aug 2001 22:16:04 -0000 Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Sun, 5 Aug 2001 15:16:04 -0700 Received: from 200.41.247.51 by lw8fd.law8.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Sun, 05 Aug 2001 22:16:04 GMT X-Originating-IP: [200.41.247.51] To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Bcc: Subject: Whatever Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 22:16:04 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Aug 2001 22:16:04.0433 (UTC) FILETIME=[37917C10:01C11DFC] From: "Jorge Llambias" I think I have discovered what makau means when it appears in the main clause and not inside a du'u. It means "whatever". At least in some contexts it does. Let's consider first a ju-sentence: mi ba te vecnu ta iju ta rupnu makau I will buy that, whatever it costs. In other words, whatever the answer to "how much does that cost?" is, I will buy it. This works because ju prevents the second sentence from being a claim. A claim could never contain makau because nothing would be claimed, or rather, it becomes a tautology, since obviously the true answer to the question, whatever it is, has to be true. {xukau} is indeed the tautology marker, so {da'au} is not necessary. Since ju by itself changes whatever follows into a tautology, it is not necessary to use xukau there, but it doesn't hurt either: mi ba te vecnu ta i [ju/xukau] ta kargu I will buy that, whether or not it is expensive. {xukau} would be an alternative to {ju}. Other contexts that allow this main clause use of kau are certain attitudinals: ui makau klama le zarci Happy! Whoever goes to the store. Whatever the true answer to "who goes to the store?" is, I'm happy about it. e'a do lebna makau Permission! Whatever you take. Comments? mu'o mi'e xorxes _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp