Am Mittwoch, 19.02.03 um 09:08 Uhr schrieb Philip Newton:
coi rodo
coi filip.
Is it correct to use ti, ta, tu for people?
Why should ti, ta, tu not be used for people? You can point at people and say "this person", "that person" and "and the person way over there". I guess you feel bad about this because you were raised in culture that teaches its children not to point at people.
"Man zeigt nicht mit nackten Fingern auf angezogene Leute!". I'm sure you at least heard that from other children when you where young. And even parents who don't use this stupid phrase caution their kids not to openly point at people.
And then I wondered how to express that in Lojban. My first thought was
{mu'i ma ta katna le jimca}, but I wasn't sure whether it was proper to
use {ta} for people.
{ko'a} is, presumably, wrong since it hasn't been bound yet (or would
it automatically be bound to the "nearest logical thing" or something
like that?). And {le va prenu} seems a bit long if it can be avoided.
(Hm, looking at the gi'uste, perhaps {ta ka'argau fi le jimca} is
better than {ta katna le jimca} when the subject is a person.)
{mu'i ma ta katna le jimca} does not link the motive specifically to {ta} but it links it to the selbri. You observe that a branch is cut by a cutting tool and ask for the motivation that causes this to happen. So this sentence expresses the same question as {ma mukti lenu ta katka le jimca kei zo'e}. And I think you did not really want to know about the personal motives of the people who wield the cutting tools you are pointing at (they might tell you that they really prefer uncut trees but need the money), but you wanted to know about a more abstract reason. You probably want to get an answer like {leka cumki daspo nalseltro selfa'u le jimca}.
Your sentence may sound pretty weird when you translate it to german or english, but It seems to be good lojban to me.
I actually like the Zen-like sound of this. It reminds me of this Zen Koan that asks "Who is the master that makes the grass green?"
Bye, Jan. -- Jan Pilgenroeder Theaterstr. 59 52062 Aachen