WikiDiscuss

Posted by pycyn on Fri 20 of May, 2005 18:23 GMT posts: 2388

> On 5/18/05, John E Clifford
> <clifford-j@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> > I do not deny that
> > {to'e ri'a nai} (left grouping, of course)
> means
> > "in spite of" in a totally regular way; I am
> only
> > claiming that {ri'a nai} is a reasonable form
> to
> > use for this notion on Zipfean grounds if not
> > other wise. And, of course, it has been
> around
> > in that sense for (I haven't checked this)
> about
> > 40 years, whereas {to'e} at least is barely a
> > decade old.
>
> So we agree that:
> - {ri'a nai} beats {to'e ri'a nai} in
> shortness.
> - {ri'a nai} beats {to'e ri'a nai} in
> tradition.
> - {to'e ri'a nai} beats {ri'a nai} in
> compositionality.
>
> We just disagree on how much weight we assign
> to each
> factor, so that we end up with a different
> preference overall.

Yup! And I cannot think of a coherent way to
argue this one out. I do suppose, however, that
{ri'a nai} is likely to stick around given its
long history in the cmavo lists.