WikiDiscuss

WikiDiscuss


Magic Words

posts: 1912


> > {zo zo} works by order of appearance.
> > {zoi zoi} works by order of appearance.
> > {lo'u lo'u} works by order of appearance.
>
> Those do, yes.
>
> > {si si} works by order of appearance.
>
> No, it's a string that deletes the two previous words.

The first {si} erases the previous word.
Then comes the second, and erases its previous word, from
what's left after the first {si} has acted.

This may not be how it is implemented in your parser, but it's a valid
description of what goes on. If they didn't act by order of appearance,
the second {si} might erase the first one.

> > {bu bu} works by order of appearance, in a way.
>
> No, it's an error, at least by the beginning of text.

That's beside the point. {zei zei} could be an error at the
beginning of text too, since the first zei comes along and
has nothing in front to grab. But they still act in order of
appearance. The first {bu} changes the previous word into
a lerfu, and then the second {bu} changes it into some other
lerfu. If they didn't work by order of appearance, the second
{bu} might turn the first into a lerfu and thus disable its
function as a bu.

> > How come {zei zei} is the exception?
>
> It's hardly the only one.

It would be the only one as far as I can see.

> The problem is, if you want to say "I said a zei lujvo", we have:
>
> {mi pu cusku lo zei zei lujvo}
>
> or something.
>
> The problem is that if we take it by order of appearence, as you
> say, the first zei grabs the lo and the second zei, so we end up
> with "I was a speaker type-of lo type of zei type of lujvo".

Right. So {zei zei lujvo} is not the right way to say "zei-lujvo".
That's why {zo zei zei lujvo} would be useful. But even if
{zo zei zei} were not allowed, I see no reason to complicate ZEI by
not letting it work by order of appearance, like everything else. It
looks like an exception to me.

mu'o mi'e xorxes





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