TECH: nested bridi anaphora

[Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>]

I feel like a creep proposing one more addition to the language, but I think
there's a real hole here:

According to you, I stole the apple. But I didn't!
.i cu'u do mi zerle'a le plise .i na'e go'i

You thought I stole the apple. But I didn't!
.i do jinvi ledu'u mi zerle'a le plise .i na'e ...

I'll talk to you when I can.
.i .ai mi tavla do co'a lenu mi ka'e no'a

I thought I *could* see a dog, because I did!
.i mi jinvi ledu'u mi ka'e viska lo gerku kei ki'u lenu ca'a ...

What we haven't got is an anaphor to pick up bridi nested inside other bridi
--- an inverse of {no'a}. What I think we need is a bridi version of {ri},
able to pick up any bridi in its path, not just sentential ones.
Like {ri}, it can pick up both referents nested within a bridi, and the bridi
itself, given subscripting. To make it refer to future bridi, give it a
negative subscript.

Let's say we call it, oh, {na'a}, of selma'o GOhA. The blanked out passages
can then be expressed as:


You thought I stole the apple. But I didn't [steal it]!
.i do jinvi ledu'u mi zerle'a le plise .i mi na'e na'a

You thought I stole the apple. But I didn't [think so]!
.i do jinvi ledu'u mi zerle'a le plise .i mi na'e na'axire
.i do jinvi ledu'u mi zerle'a le plise .i mi na'e go'i

I thought I *could* see a dog, because I did [see it]!
.i mi jinvi ledu'u mi ka'e viska lo gerku kei ki'u lenu ca'a na'a

I *could* think I could see a dog, because I *did* [think so]!
.i mi jinvi ledu'u mi ka'e viska lo gerku kei ki'u lenu ca'a na'axire
.i mi jinvi ledu'u mi ka'e viska lo gerku kei ki'u lenu ca'a no'a

Because I *did* [see it], I thought I *could* see a dog.
.i ki'u lenu ca'a na'axini'upa kei mi jinvi ledu'u mi ka'e viska lo gerku

If you feel like you have spare cmavo aplenty, you could also define a
cataphora version of na'a (one refering explicitly to future bridi, so
you won't have to use the minus sign). My suspicion is this won't come up
often enough, and we don't have that many cmavo left. (We down to 20 yet?)

 %%    %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%   %%%
non me tenent vincula, non me tenet clavis, %   (nsn@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au)
quaero mei similes et adjungor pravis.      % Nick Nicholas, CogSci victim,
      --- Archipoeta, _Confessio_.          % Univ. of Melbourne, Australia