tags as connectives
x
>pc:
>>"corresponding selbri" (that there always is one is
>>suspect in many cases)
>
>How can there not be one? We have two things that get connected,
>so we can always define a new selbri 'brodrtaga' such that it
>represents that relationship between the two things that the tag connects, >i.e. such that {lo nu bu'a cu brodrtaga lo nu bu'e} means {bu'a i <tag> bo
>bu'e}.
pc:
Sure, we can always fadge up a predicate, but that makes tags uninteresting – and a little suspect. What I meant was “natural predicate,” “existing predicate.” Maybe even “gismu.”
>> The order for the causal/inferential
>> connectives changed several times in printed Loglan text, mainly as
>>the translation of the connectives moved between "because" (which has a
>>certain naturalness from "cause") and "hence/therefore/thus" which seemed >>to fit the order better.
>>
>> The argument always came back to the order of the underlying
>> predicate, though I don't remember what it was most recently in
>>Loglan. Of course, the predicates do not keep the corresponding orders
>>completely, so that argument may collapse a bit — and some are personal >>rather than formal, I seem to recall.
>The problem is not so much the underlying predicate, that is just
>a convenient way to explain it. The problem is that:
>
> {X i ba bo Y} corresponds to {ba gi Y gi X}
>
>whereas
>
> {X i ri'a bo Y} corresponds to {ri'a gi X gi Y}
>
>So even if we don't mention any underlying predicates, there
>is a discrepancy.
pc:
I suspect that the discrepancy is connected with the predicates involved: with the typical PU, the following sumti is actually the second argument of the corresponding predicate, with BAI it is the first. The afterthought-connective use of the tags, since it clearly comes between the two, adopts the order of the predicate, no longer following the tag association of the other uses. Suppose {anai} were associated with “follows from”: then {X ijanai Y} would correspond to {ganai Y gi X} (though the principles involved are somewhat different).