Re: Old archives

taliesin the storyteller wrote:

>> When you write "NB!", you don't mean "Nota Bene" do you?
>
> <digression>I can never remember whether one's supposed to answer "yes"
> or "no" to a tag-question like that, as it varies with language.
In English, one ignores any negation in a yes/no question.
So "you do mean?" and "you don't mean?" mean the same,
and are answered "yes" if you do mean that and "no"
if you don't.

ObConlang:  in Lojban, there are three replies, but they
are different from French oui/non/si and German ja/nein/doch
(which I suppose is the Norwegian pattern too). Instead,  "go'i"
affirms a positive question and denies a negative one,
"nago'i" always denies, and "ja'ago'i" always affirms.
Therefore:

        xu do klama le zarci
        ? you go-to the market

expects either "go'i" or "ja'ago'i" if you are going,
and "nago'i" if you are not going, and

        xu do na klama le zarci
        ? you not go-to the market

expects either "go'i" or "nago'i" if you are not going,
and "ja'ago'i" if you are going.

--
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein