Re: replies re. ka & mamta be ma

[Chris Bogart <cbogart@quetzal.com>]

And:
>I'm rather baffled about what the link between "I define" and creating
>a performative can be. Whatever the explanation is, I agree that "hereby"
>is used to flag, if not to create, performatives.

Well, "I define" isn't quite right but there really is no English equivalent
phrase which changes a statement into a performative.  I think you're right
that "hereby" only flags, not creates, performatives.

>Yes, you can claim it is false, and this is exactly the problem.
>"Julius Caesar hereby commands/commanded you to go away" is false.

If we were to assume that ca'e is NOT "hereby", but truly makes a
performative, it'll be tricky to extract a useful meaning from: "ca'e la
djuliys siz,r ca minde lenu do to'omo'i klama"; it's a silly sentence, but
my guess about the interpretation would be that the speaker is thereby
redefining their personal ideolect such that that statement is true, by
stretching the meaining of "minde" in some unspecified way.

That would be consistent with the example in the grammar, "ca'e le re do cu
simxu speni" (I now pronounce the two of you to be married) -- in a sense
we're redefining "simxu speni", if the 'definition' of a selbri is the set
of sumti which make it true.