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RE: [jboske] kau



On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, And Rosta wrote:

> xod:
> #On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, And Rosta wrote:
> #> Anyway, yes we definitely (*including* pc) agreed that lo'i du'u Qkau is the
> #> set of answers.
> #
> #Here's one of the places where you guys always blow it. The answer to the
> #question "Who shot JR?" is "Alice.", not "Alice shot JR.". Answers are
> #sumties, not du'us, and this is true in English and Lojban alike.
>
> (It is so long since JR was shot, that I can no longer remember who did it.
> It was a woman, but was she really called Alice?)



I've forgotten too -- I made Alice up!



> We may disagree about whether an answer is a sumti or a du'u, but
> certainly lo'i du'u Qkau is a set of *propositional* 'answers' like "Alice
> shot JR".



What's a propositional answer? Do you mean a filled repeat of the original
question, such as "Alice shot JR."? Fine, but then let's stop chanting the
mantra that du'u makau zukte is the/an answer to the question. It's not an
answer, it's a du'u statement which happens to answer the question --
because it *contains* the answer.

If that's all we mean, then makau is just like ko'a if we ease up a bit on
the demand that every ko'a must be assigned with goi, and allow them to be
assigned operationally. Which is not a bad idea!



-- 
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.