"Which door would your brother say is the door that leads to freedom?"
Clever, but how would a Lojbanist say this when standing in front of two Lojbani brothers, one the liar, one the truth-teller?
First, let's recap how the question word ma (as well as all the other question words) behave.
ma always has top-scope, no matter how deeply nested it appears in a sentence. (1) and (2) are equivalent:
ma always has top-scope, no matter how deeply nested it appears in a sentence. (1) and (2) are equivalent:
(1) do djica lo nu mi zukte ma
"You want me to do what?"
"What do you want me to do?"
(2) ma poi'i do djica lo nu mi zukte ke'a
"What is such that you want me to do it?"
"What is it you want me to do?"
However, if we wish to restrict the referent pool of the question word, the familiar method of using poi (as in (3)) may not be semantically accurate -- the desired expansion of (3) is (4), but the actual meaning is (5). The difference might be subtle and difficult to spot, but it's there, and it means that we should find a new way to say "which/what".
(3) do pu kanpe lo nu mi cuxna ma poi taxfu
(4) ma taxfu gi'e poi'i do pu kanpe lo nu mi cuxna ke'a
(5) ma poi'i do pu kanpe lo nu mi cuxna ke'a poi taxfu
ma poi'i do pu kanpe lo nu mi cuxna lo me ke'a je taxfu
One option might be to use noi instead of poi (as in (6)), another would be to use mo (as in (7)).
(6) do pu kanpe lo nu mi cuxna ma noi taxfu
(7) do pu kanpe lo nu mi cuxna lo mo taxfu
"What kind of clothes did you expect me to choose?"
"[The] what-clothes did you expect me to choose?"
Both methods leave something to be desired. Even if noi has the right semantics, it still requires a terminator and a ke'a, while using mo can be vague (since it's a tanru) and it can be awkward to use.
Therefore, I propose a new gadri X (in selma'o LO) that has the semantics of (4) but keeps the wh in-situ capability of (3). In other words, ko'a broda X brode is defined as ma brode gi'e poi'i ko'a broda ke'a.
It remains to be decided how that new gadri should be spelled. I will use mo'oi for now:
Therefore, I propose a new gadri X (in selma'o LO) that has the semantics of (4) but keeps the wh in-situ capability of (3). In other words, ko'a broda X brode is defined as ma brode gi'e poi'i ko'a broda ke'a.
It remains to be decided how that new gadri should be spelled. I will use mo'oi for now:
(8) mo'oi prenu pu gunta do
"Which person attacked you?"
"Who attacked you?"
(9) do djica lo nu mi tcidu fi mo'oi cukta
"You want me to read which/what book(s)?"
"What book(s) do you want me to read?"
(10) .oi sai mo'oi me do pu spofygau lo mi X-zei-tanxe doi malpre
"Dammit, which one of you assholes broke my Xbox?!"
(11) ko na jungau la gleki lo du'u mi mo'oi kau uitki papri ca'o cnegau
"Don't tell Gleki which wiki pages I'm changing."
(12) na vajni fa lo du'u mo'oi kau me ma'a cu pa moi klama
"It doesn't matter which one of us goes first."
(13) lo bruna be do cu da'i xusra lo du'u mo'oi vorme cu pluta tu'a lo ka zifre
"Which door would your brother say is the door that leads to freedom?"
What do you think?
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