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I received some questions by private email from someone who is on this
list. However, rather than answer them privately, I'm answering them
here because because they should be of general interest.
In the future, I'd appreciate it if all of you would post to this list
when practical rather than send me private email.
>
> Would you add the date of last change to the lessons and dictionaries?
>
Since I'd have to do it manually, I'd probably forget. The index file
and the html versions of the dictionaries are generated by a script, so
it automatically takes care of the date.
The easiest way is probably to fetch the directory contents rather than
the index file. I'm not sure if you can do this with a browser (does
anyone else know?), but you can certainly do it with command line
utilities such as wget and probably with lynx.
By fetching the directory rather than the index file, you'll have a list
of the files with modification dates. In other words, you won't even
have to download the files to see if they've been changed.
>
> "Semunti" is definite by default, isn't it? It's not one of "event
> nouns, quality nouns, and professions". So no definite article needs
> to be added.
>
I've modified the reference manual to conform with the software. It now
reads:
In the interlingua, all noun phrases will be definite by default
except for the following: event nouns, quality nouns, and
professions will be generic by default, and nouns derived from
or modified by cardinal numeric words will be indefinite by
default.
Thus, "semunti" is indefinite by default since it is derived from "semu".
>
> As a response to "Who did this?", "I'm the one" is synonymous with
> "I'm he" and is short for "I'm the one who did it." Would that be
> "Batsa mi semunti (te xonza sehi nimi)"? Or "Niminta mi"?
>
No to both. A third person deictic always refers to someone other than
the speaker.
For an example like this, use a real anaphor, as in "Minta byohi". This
literally means 'He/she is me'. "Byohi" is the anaphor for "kibyo"
= 'who'. Thus,
Pi xonza kibyo junti? Pi minta byohi.
= Who did this? It was me.
>
> What is the difference between obligation and necessity in the modals?
> Can you give me an example where one is true and not the other?
>
I realize that some natural languages do not make this distinction using
a simple modal construct, but enough do to make it useful. Obligation
is completely neutral in that it does not imply anything other than
obligation, such as consequences. Necessity implies both obligation and
need (i.e., that something is or will be lacking if nothing is done).
I'm surprised that you ask this question, because to me the distinction
is clear. For example, the following two sentences are definitely not
synonymous:
1. I should go into town.
2. I need to go into town.
(2) implies that I'm lacking something while (1) says nothing about
what's motivating me.
Regards,
Rick Morneau
http://www.srv.net/~ram
http://www.eskimo.com/~ram