Re: modals (was: cmavo hit-list)

[Jorge Llambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>]

la'o gy Mark Biggar gy cusku di'e

> Speaking of the modals that express how you know something, I got some
> questions.  I noticed that besides Se'o (by inner experience) that there also:
>
> ba'a  I anticipate (does this include guess?)

I'd say yes, but you can make it more specific adding ju'o, ju'ocu'i, etc.

{ba'aju'o} would be "I expect with certainty", {ba'aju'ocu'i} more like
"I guess". A bit wordy, though.

> ca'e  I define
> ja'o  I conclude (deductive? or does this also include inductive?)

Probably does. I don't think these are up to such fine distinctions.

> ju'a  I state
> ka'u  I know culturally
> pe'i  I opine (suppose?)

da'i is "supposing".

> ru'a  I postulate (includes theorize?)

What's "theorize"? Is it something like "Let's assume..."?

> su'a  I generlize
> ti'e  I hear
> za'a  I obsreve
>
> In the course of trying to translate some passages of a grade-school level
> science book (in an attempt to get my science-mad 5th-grade nephew
> interested in Lojban)  I ran into the need for at least one more model
> of this type, one that says "I know on authority" or "from a trusted source".
> In some cases ka'u will work (like when talking about religion) and ti'e
> is much too weak.  When talking about things that are known from expermintal
> evidence, you can't really use za'a unless you personally did the experiment,
> or if a logical proof exists, you really can't use ja'o unless you yourself
 have
> done or verified the proof.
>
> In addition how do you attribute a supposed modal to someone other then
> yourself?

dai is the empathy marker, which I think could be extended to this how you
know something.

za'adai would work for "I observe empathically", ie through someone else's
observations really. The same for ja'odai.

Or is this too nonsensical?

Jorge