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factivity of nu



Nick the Weasel asserts that while du'u is not factive ("it [must] have a
predicate and arguments, [no more]"), nu is factive ("what it describes
truly happens in the world").

I have (consistently, I think) asserted both within and outwith CLL that
the latter is untrue.  The event of Nixon being elected President in '68
is no more and no less an event than the event of McGovern being elected etc.,
even though the former cu fasnu and the latter, on the contrary, na fasnu.
(Digression:  Although "on the contrary" is now firmly lexicalized, it was
once an application of Aristotelian logic: "Nixon elected" and "McGovern
elected" are Aristotelian contraries, as they cannot both be true.)

It is in fact proper that notions like "truly happens in the world" be expressed
in Lojban with full predicates rather than implicitly by grammatical
machinery:  Use The Brivla, Luke.

-- 
If you have ever wondered if you are in hell,         John Cowan
it has been said, then you are on a well-traveled     http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
road of spiritual inquiry.  If you are absolutely   http://www.reutershealth.com
sure you are in hell, however, then you must be         jcowan@hidden.email
on the Cross Bronx Expressway.          --Alan Feur, NYTimes, 2002-09-20