Subject: RE: [lojban] Whatever

From: "And Rosta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 23:16:51 +0100

Jorge:
> 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.

= ro da zo'u gu mi ba te vecnu ta gi ta rupnu da

[or should that be se gu?]

> 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.

I'm not convinced that the makau is appropriate in your 
sentence, on the grounds that it can be rephrased as I have
done, whereas not all Q-kau constructions can be thus rephrased.

> {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}.

= ro da (poi ke'a truthvalue) zo'u 
gu mi ba te vecnu ta gi da jei ta kargu

> 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.

While trying to formulate a horrified rejection of this, I 
concluded that (a) it's hunkydory, and (b) it's hard to
rephrase.

> e'a do lebna makau
> Permission! Whatever you take.
> 
> Comments?

I take it that the last 2 exx mean also that I am happy that the
nongoers are nongoers and that I also permit you not to take the
things you don't take. It's these extra meanings that stop

ro da zo'u ui/e'a do lebna da

from working.

--And.