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Re: [jboske] kau, take 2




la xod cusku di'e

(Tangent: How could makau ever take values that are false?)

It could take values that give a false proposition. For example,
{la djan krisre le du'u makau catra la lauras}, "John is wrong
about who killed Laura". John believes that Mary killed Laura,
but she didn't. So "Mary killed Laura", which is John's mistaken
belief, is false.

So, makau is a variable that makes the statement true, by representing
whatever values are required for truth. But assuming the Butler did
it, then the du'u in

>    i na vajni fa le du'u makau catra la lauras
>    It doesn't matter who killed Laura.

doesn't mean "the identity of Laura's killer", but rather "The Butler
killed Laura", and the full sentence means "It doesn't matter that the
Butler killed Laura".

Rather: "It doesn't matter that it was the butler who killed Laura".
Just a matter of focus.

makau only becomes "who" inasmuch as it's used in the canonical case, and
it's assumed that the speaker too knows the value of makau. This second
assumption does not follow from your above definition of makau, though. "I
know that someone killed Laura" is a legitimate reading of "mi djuno le
du'u makau li'o", regardless of the irrelevant fact that this normally
gets rendered with da, because makau takes whatever values are required
for truth, but the speaker doesn't necessarily know what those values are.

But I may know that someone killed Laura and not know who
that someone is. {mi djuno le du'u makau catra} says that
I know who did it, not just that I know that someone did it.

mu'o mi'e xorxes



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