History: makau

Source of version: 1 (current)

''makau'' within an abstraction stands for whatever makes the bridi within the abstraction true. There's no reason not to expand this to any level of the bridi. Thus: mi ba te vecnu ta ije ta rupnu makau I will buy that, whatever it costs. ''makau'' refers to whatever specific thing it costs in this context. Thus ''makau'' can often be translated as ''whatever'' in this context. This also applies to all the other ''question-word + kau'' phrases, and so ''xukau'', for example, at the main level signals a tautology. See ((da'au)) and [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lojban/message/9230. *] Note that ''makau'' here means any question-word + ''kau''. -- ((And)) * That should be ''iju''. ''mi ba te vecnu ta .ije ta rupnu makau'' means "I will buy that and it costs whatever". -((Pierre Abbat|phma)) ----- Since {kau} is the mark of indirect (subordinate) questions, it cannot occur in main clauses, that is, there is a reason why it cannot be expanded to any level. The specimen used also does not mean what is claimed but (if it were legitimate) "I will buy that and that costs what it does." not obviously the same thing. pc>|8} ----- So does ''mokau'' mean "That's the way it is."? *Since outside of subordinate clauses it has no meaning, I have no idea. But I suspect it is intended to be something like that. pc>|8}