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John:
> And Rosta scripsit:
> >
> > If {du'u} were abolished, are there any cases where it could not
> > be replaced by {ka'e nu}, assuming an appropriate tweaking of
> > the semantics of sumti places that take a du'u sumti (e.g.
> > "true" being reconstrued as "is actual", is "ca'a nu")?
>
> I think that a nu-abstraction, with whatever potential tense,
> is extremely weird for "du'u li re su'i re du li vo
This seems reasonable enough, but if you look at selbri that
seem to allow a {ka'e nu} abstraction as a sumti, these sorts
of uneventlike propositions still make sense -- e.g. "I wish/hope
that 2 + 2 = 5", "I try to make it the case that 2 + 2 = 5",
etc. (okay, they're a bit daft, but they're not gobbledygook).
In this case, one of A-B should obtain. Which of the two is
the better?
A.
1. Sumti expressing states of affairs that may or may not be the
case are expressed with {du'u}, and the meaning of the selbri
usually involves something like "for x (du'u) to be true", "that x
(du'u) be/is true".
2. There is no sufficiently convenient to indicate whether the
du'u is or isn't true. Perhaps CAhA could be pressed into use
for this, or else a couple of experimental cmavo in NU for true
du'u and for false du'u.
3. {ka'e nu} would remain used for talking about possibly-imaginary
events (e.g. Oswald assassinating Kennedy; the murder of Harry
Potter's parents), just as {ka'e gerku} is used for talking about
possibly-imaginary dogs.
[NB I am using an Adamic construal of {ka'e} here. If anyone
insists on a Woldian construal, then change {ka'e} to {ka'ei} or
{su'o mu'ei}.]
B.
1. Sumti expressing states of affairs that may or may not be the
case are expressed with {ka'e nu}, and the meaning of the selbri
usually involves something like "for x (ka'e nu) to be ca'a nu",
"that x (ka'e nu) be/is ca'a nu".
2. A 'nu' would be understood in a maximally broad sense to
include states of affairs that aren't manifest in spacetime.
3. {du'u} would be redundant.
--And.