[YG Conlang Archives] > [jboske group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
la and cusku di'e
> It would seem from this example that it can be paraphrased with > a wh-ever in the next outer clause, but not further than that > That is if Lojban is like English in this, which is not > necessarily the case given that Lojban's questions are somewhat > different than English, as they can be embedded as much as you > like How are Lojban questions different from English? I'd have thought questions, qua meanings rather than words, ought to be independent of the particular language.
I was thinking of the surface expression of questions. In English
the question word is always at the main bridi level as it were,
as if it was always in the top prenex in terms of Lojban:
What are you planning to ask her to give you?
ma goi ko'a zo'u do platu lo'e nu cpedu lo'e nu ko'e dunda ko'a do
In Lojban we can embed the question word directly:
do platu lo'e nu cpedu lo'e nu ko'e dunda ma do
so if there are any issues of {ma} belonging to a certain prenex
they would not show up in English.
Probably irrelevant for questions, but it may be relevant for
indirect questions.
mu'o mi'e xorxes
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail