>@XMIT DX1:METFLIX.TXT
@H@RLa Metflidjimao Vemsia@XTranslation / Carter@X1982.1.11@W1,
@F@W1,@C@N
@B@CLa Metflidjimao Vemsia
(The Welding Shop)
James F. Carter
@W1,@E
@PTigereye watched the waves from the kids in the canal.  
Their high voices grated on his ears.  
The horizontal rays of the just-risen sun illuminated a small
fight in the water.  
Mei Chi called, "Tigereye, Tigereye!  He dunked me!  
Punish him!"  
@P"Punish him yourself," Tigereye said.  "Nag at him, or
dunk him back.  Don't always ask me to straighten out your problems."  
Mei Chi was not much pleased with his help.  
@PHe brushed a black hair from his slanted eye, and thought, 
"What's making me sad?  
i'm doing well in school.  
My teacher just complimented me on my history paper."  
He stroked his strong muscles and his handsome mahogany skin, 
which usually pleased him, but not now.  
"Suppose I take a swim," he thought.  
"Ichiro!  Let's race to the next building!"  
He took off his loincloth and tossed it in a box on the float, and jumped
into the water.  Ichiro was a strong swimmer, but not so strong 
as a teenager.  Even so, the race was enjoyable.  
@P"The barge!" Tigereye cried.  "Swim over here right now!  
Joseph, move your ass!  Do you want to get chewed up by the barge's propeller?"  
He thought, "Damn, I have to watch them every minute.  
Why can't they take care of themselves?  
I swim for one second and they get into trouble."  
@P"I have to pee."  
@P"Go, but be quick about it."  The boy pulled himself out of the water.  
@PThe rising sun reminded Tigereye that he was hungry.  
"What's taking that kid so long to pee?" 
he thought.  
Finally he returned.  
"Lunchtime!"  Tigereye called.  "Everybody get out and dress.  
Follow me.  Gloria, your laplap is coming off.  
Come on!  Move it!  Don't lag back!"  
He dragged his charges to his house, which was on the fifth floor 
of one of the big apartment buildings.  
He heated the food in a microwave oven.  
One of the little ones asked, "I'm hungry.  Please hurry."  
@P"I can't cook any faster.  Please be patient."  
In a while he fed the children.  
@P"Mei Chi", he shouted, "that's the most disgusting thing
I ever saw!  Go to the corner!  Never mess up your food like that!"  
@PMei Chi went to the corner and cried.  "I'm hungry.  
I'm so hungry."  
@P"You should have remembered before you smeared up your food.  
Now shut up."  She continued to sob.  
@PEventually all the children finished eating.  
Tigereye, though, was still hungry, because the food was not quite
enough for everybody and he had eaten a small serving.  
He took his backpack and said, "The group is going to the park.  
The older children will study."  
@P"Aaaw!"  
@PIgnoring that, he went on, "Get your packs, and let's go."  
@PRicky, who was four, announced, "Caca."  
@P"Damn.  Ichiro, please take charge.  We'll meet you there.  
Go and do it, Ricky.  I'll wait."  
@PHe crapped, then said, "Wipe my ass."  
@P"Wipe your own ass.  You know how."  
@P"So why are you waiting for me?"  
@P"Wipe.  Do you think you can be left unsupervised?"  
@P"I'm very responsible."  
@P"Right, you're more responsible than most four-year-olds.  
But you can't be left by yourself.  
Stick up your butt.  Clean enough.  Wash your hands."  
@PWhen they rejoined the group, Ichiro was bearing up strongly but was
near tears, for Mei Chi had been refusing to obey him.  
"Mei Chi took Mzima's car and refuses to give it back."  
@P"Mzima gave it to me," Mei Chi said.  
@PBut Mzima said, "No.  I just shared my car with her.  
She's bad and nasty by stealing something shared."  
@PTigereye judged, "Right.  Give the car to Mzima."  
@P"No!  You're playing favorites.  He gave it to me, 
and I won't give it back!"  
@PTigereye sighed and said, "Please don't make trouble.  Be good."  
He felt that Mei Chi was trapping him into some kind of mistake.  
@PShe shouted, "Favorites!  Favorites!  Favorites!  I hate you!"  
And she hit Tigereye with the car, which cut his arm.  
Without thinking he slapped her face, to which she cried, 
"You're bad!  You wounded me!  You're irresponsible!"  Etc., etc.  
@PThe subsequent punishment was loud and long, and afterward
Tigereye felt filthy.  
@PLater, Tigereye was talking with Ichiro, who was saying, 
"Don't take Mei Chi so seriously.  She's just a brat, so 
you shouldn't get all sad over her."  
@P"I hate this job.  I punish this one.  I punish that one.  
Wipe my ass.  Quick, I'm hungry.  Don't lag back.  
rAlways don't lag back.  I hate it!  
I'm not complaining about you; you're a good one and a big help to me.  
But I've changed.  Once I enjoyed taking care of kids
because I was a big man, a leader.  But now I want something more.  
I study physics and calculus and engineering.  
Why should I be wiping asses?"  
@P"Maybe you should find some enjoyable work."  
@P"Yeah.  Maybe I could open a calculus shop."  
@PIchiro replied, "Engineers know how to weld.  Do you know
how to do that?"  
@P"Some engineers know that.  I do."  
@P"How about offering a welding service?"  
@P"Maybe.  Hmmm.  Thanks, Ichiro, I like that.  
That would get rid of several of my problems: Mei Chi, number one.  
I'll certainly take your suggestion.  That's a good idea.  
Thanks!  You're a good friend."  
@PWhen the sun rose to vertical, the parents of the children
collected them, and Tigereye returned home.  
During dinner he talked with his father and mother about his troubles.  
His father replied, "Certainly it was wrong to slap Mei Chi, but I think
I would have done the same thing.  
You should talk to her parents about her brat behavior.  
She's excessive, every day."  
@P"She certainly is.  I'll do that.  But there's something else
bothering me.  I don't enjoy my work.  
I know physics and engineering, so why am I wiping asses?  
I want to work at the things I'm studying so hard.  
Perhaps I will open a welding shop."  
@PHis mother interjected, "You're going to do manual labor?  
My son is going to be an educated person!"  
@P"You didn't complain when I became an asswiper.  
Suggest something else I can do with my education now."  
@PHis father asked, "Do you intend to stop your education?"  
@P"Certainly not.  I expect to stay in school and finish my education.  
But I need work now that's better than taking care of kids."  
@P"Building people is an important job."  
@P"Those are pretty words.  But the job bugs me.  What do you think
about welding?"  
@P"Who's going to pay for your equipment?"  
@P"I'll pay.  I do earn something from babysitting."  
@P"Welders are expensive.  So is a shop."  
@P"Yes, they're expensive.  I had an idea about that.  
It's a little dumb for me to pay for the shop, plus my share of this
house.  You understand?"  
@P"I think probably you should join up with an experienced 
welder who would share his shop, so your expenses wouldn't
be so much, and you maybe could learn something from him."  
@P"I thought this way ... This is hard to say."  Tigereye took a
deep breath.  "I want to move out.  I want the shop so I could
live in it."  
@PHis mother said, "Son!  You're my baby!"  
@P"No.  While your eyes were closed I grew up.  Look at my body shape.  
Is this a baby?  I'm not an adult, but I certainly am not a baby.  
That's why I want to move out."  
@PTears came from the mother's eyes.  
@PHis father asked, "Do you want to completely break with your family?"  
@P"I don't intend that.  I need you, Mom and Dad.  
But ... but I need a little space of my own.  
I never intend to completely split from you.  
One of my friends has an arrangement that might be good.  
He and his family usually eat together, but he sleeps in his own 
apartment.  What do you think of that?"  
@P"I've known for a long time that you would ask this.  
But I didn't expect it so soon.  
Go away, because I want to think and talk with your mother.  
And write down a list of how much the stuff you need will cost."  
@PLater: Morning Star Welding.  
The small room was on the third floor, which was low for a residence
but high for a shop, but cheap.  
The sky was dark, but the room's lights illuminated a mahogany tree
growing in the courtyard that rose just beyond the balcony of the room.  
Inside was a big table near the front, 
and a welding generator of uncertain origins, but which was 
definitely old, a drill press, also rather old, 
a hammock in front of the balcony -- and Tigereye.  
He was sorting metal scraps which he had just bought, and nuts and bolts.  
The bell hanging from the door rang as someone entered.  
@P"Hi.  I'm Kris.  Would you weld this for me?"  
@P"Hi.  I'm Tigereye.  Sure, I'll do it.  By the way, you're my 
first customer."  
@P"Really?  This is good for a beginning, because it's simple."  
@P"What is it?"  
@PKris was carrying a triangle of steel 3 mm thick and 5 cm on
each edge, with a hole in each corner.  He also had a 
19 mm wrench socket.  
"This is a special tool for taking the timing gear nut off a 
Mercury outboard motor.  This point is where the socket goes."  
@P"Let's braze it.  I was taught to braze when you can.  OK?"  
@P"Will the brass be strong enough?"  
@P"Silver-brass is stronger than ordinary steel like this.  
In my class I cut and rejoined a steel scrap, then broke it.  
The steel, not the braze, broke.  
Also, maybe the heat of welding will distort the socket."  
@P"OK, let's braze it.  How much will this cost?"  
@P"0.3 pengo."  
@P"OK."  
@PTigereye painted the joint surfaces of the socket and the 
triangle point with fluoborate flux, then bolted them together.  
Then he lit his acetylene torch and heated the parts.  
He touched them with a silver-brass wire which flowed into the joint.  
The parts were strongly joined.  
He cleaned up the assembly and gave it back to Kris.  
@PTigereye thought, "My first job -- and my first 0.3 pengo!"  
@PAfter a while, Karen came in and looked around.  
"Great, your own place!  I like it.  But you need some decorations and paint, 
and a better rug than that.  Would you like me to help you
fix this place up?"  
@P"I'm glad you like my place.  Thanks, you're much better than me
at decorating, and art generally."  
@P"Has anyone been here?"  She took his hands in hers.  
@P"Yes.  I had one customer.  I earned 0.3 pengos."  
@P"Great!"  She threw her arms around him and kissed him.  
He kissed back.  
Their privacy excited them, and something grew down below.  
They wriggled their bodies and kissed.  
Tigereye loosened her laplap, while Karen took off his loincloth.  
They fell into the hammock.  
@PWhereupon the doorbell rang, and in came a middleaged lady
carrying a shaft and gear.  
Her eyes widened, and she began to silently leave.  
@PThis behavior was customary.  Tigereye's parents would have done
the same, and he would have too if he had come upon them by chance.  
But the situation was not customary.  "Please stay!  Don't go!"  
He got out of the hammock -- that is, he tried.  
But Karen also was trying to get out, and both of them flopped back
in a tangle of arms and legs.  
"Let's keep calm.  How are we going to get out of this?  
Hold still until I'm out."  
He nakedly stood on the floor and asked the woman, 
"How may I help you?"  
@P"Teenager, you're a bold one in an embarrasing situation."  
She laughed.  "You could cover your cock."  
@PHe put on his loincloth, while Karen dressed and sat on the rug
near the hammock.  
"I'm sorry to trouble you, and sorry to forget my responsibilities."  
[to be irresponsible to the hypothetical you, i.e. before you became
actual by entering the shop.]  
@P"No big deal.  But I hope you weren't cooking up a baby."  
@P"Of course we aren't that irresponsible [to our hypothetical future
child].  We know we're teenagers.  We were just making out."  
@P"Good.  Have a good time.  Now, can you fix this shaft?"  
@PIt was cracked at a ball bearing, which turned fairly freely.  
"This shaft overhangs.  Did something hit it, or did it break in
normal service?  I see some scratch marks on the shaft near
the bearing.  Maybe it's been replaced several times.  Right?"  
@P"Slow down.  You have sharp eyes."  
@PHe interrupted, "I'm Tigereye."  
@P"That's appropriate.  It was running normally when it broke, 
and you're right about the bearing."  
@P"I can weld the shaft, and it would probably even come out straight.  
But probably that's not such a good idea.  
Perhaps it and the bearing aren't strong enough for their job.  
I have a suggestion.  Substitute a stainless steel shaft, 
and a roller bearing.  
But unfortunately I can't make those parts, because 
my equipment is poor and insufficient.  
For example, I can't cut the square hole for the key that holds
the gear on the shaft.  
I suggest you go to a machine shop better than this.  Sorry."  
@P"Thank you.  How much do I owe you?"  
@P"No charge.  I didn't do anything."  
@P"Sure, you helped me a lot.  You're expert and smart, even if sexy,
so I had hoped you would do the job.  
Who taught you, that is, how did you get your expertise?"  
@P"My engineering class studied at Grumman Company.  
Do you know them?  Their engineers taught us and gave us
their experience, which I pass on to you.  
@P"What got them to do that?"  
@P"Don't you know?  They can pay taxes by teaching."  
@P"Nobody told me that.  Could I maybe do that in my company?  
Thanks, Tigereye, you've been a big help.  Bye."  
@PKaren commented, "I was so embarrassed when the old lady
walked in!  Why didn't you fix her thing?"  
@P"She wasn't old.  I'd rather talk to her about a good solution
than take her money and mess it up."  
@P"You were certainly brazen in front of her."  
@P"'Brazen' means what to you?"  
@P"It's English slang.  It means unashamed when you should be.  
You should have been embarrassed to stand
there naked and talk to her like that.  
@P"Why shouldn't I?  I didn't do anything wrong."  
@P"It's not customary."  
@P"What customary?  Everybody swims naked, so why not sell naked?  
It's light outside.  Let's finish what we started, then 
bathe and get some lunch.  
And this time I'll put a note on the door and lock it."  
@PAfter lunch Tigereye and Karen returned to the shop.  
Soon after, in came Ichiro, who said, 
"Hi.  I came over to see your place.  It's nice.  You have equipment.  
May I play with this?"  He took a big bolt and nut.  
@PRight then, a customer arrived pushing a handcart whose frame
was broken.  "Can you fix this?"  
@P"Sure, that's simple.  Roll it over here."  
@P"When will you do it?"  
@P"Right now.  The ... The price is 0.3 pengo.  OK?"  
@P"OK."  
@P"May I watch?" asked Ichiro.  
@P"No, because the ultraviolet light would burn you up.  
But you may watch me prepare the joint."  
He cleaned and levelled the metal tube, which had cracked at a joint, 
with a motorized hand-held abrasive wheel.  
A cloud of iron sparks spewed out.  
@PThen he said, "Everybody please get out."  
He connected the earth cable and turned on the welder.  
He put on his gloves and apron and flare shield.  
He struck the electric arc and quickly joined the broken parts.  
"Come on in!  I'm done."  
@PSaid the customer, "This is sure better than before."  
He paid, and left.  
@PIchiro commented, "I liked the burning sparks.  And the light under
the door was wierd.  You need someplace for customers to wait.  
It's crummy to kick us out in the hall."  
@P"Right.  Maybe I need a screen.  But do I want to buy or build it?"  
@PIchiro laughed and interrupted, "Maybe you could grow it!"  
[Tease for not asking free question.]  
@PTigereye mussed his hair as he ducked his head.  "Thanks, teacher.  
What I should have said is, 'In what manner do I want to acquire
a screen?'  I don't want to buy it because commercial screens are
translucent, so I would have to paint over the pretty designs.  
I'll build it."  
@P"And you need a chair."  
@P"I sit on the floor, so my customers can sit there too.  
You're a floor-sitter, Jap, so what makes you so fancy?  
But I certainly will buy another rug -- tomorrow."  
@P"I'd like to go with you on that.  But Maleen is probably
thinking maybe I'm not coming back.  I'd better get back to the group.  
Bye."  
@P"Bye, Ichiro," Tigereye and Karen said.  
@PKaren added, "I have to get to a class too.  Bye."  
@PSome time later, Tigereye was sitting on the floor doing math.  
Specifically, he was writing an examination.  
The doorbell rang and a customer came in and said, 
"I need fifty of these per week.  Can you make them?"  
@P"Wow, sure!"  A welding shop earns much of its money
from regular work like that.  
@PThe customer replied, "Teenager, you're young and unfamiliar
to me.  Would you make one while I watch, as a test?"  
@P"OK.  But I have only one apron."  
@P"I'm black, so one exposure to ultraviolet won't hurt me.  
I'm glad you have two flare shields."  
@PTigereye thought, but didn't say, "It's your skin."  
He supported the parts and attached the cable and 
welded the assembly, while the customer watched closely.  
@P"Your technique is adequate."  Tigereye thought his technique
was more than just adequate.  "Now would you proof-test it by
pulling it apart?"  
@P"Oops!  I don't have a pull-tester."  
@P"Really?  Unfortunately, I have a rule that anyone who works
on my stuff has to test himself immediately before.  
If he's sick or flying on pot, he should take a day off."  
@P"I guess I can't work for you.  But would you write down your
name and number?  I'll send you a message when I get a pull-tester."  
@P"That's a good idea.  May I make a suggestion?"  
@P"OK."
@P"You need a pull-tester and a rotating metal table.  
Those are important equipment.  
Why don't you join an experienced welder, so your overhead cost will
be less and you can learn from him?  
And protect your toes.  Sometime a drop of molten metal
is going to roll off the table on them.  That hurts."  
@P"Thanks.  Those are good suggestions.  
But my apron covers my feet."  
@P"Usually.  How much do I owe you?  0.3 pengos?"  
@P"Nothing.  You paid with experience."  
@P"No, I used your time and materials, so I should pay.  
Take this.  Bye."  
@PWhen the sun got vertical Karen came back.  
"Let's celebrate about your shop!  How many customers were here
while I was gone?"  
@P"One customer.  He offered regular work, but he wasn't satisfied
with me.  
["io" is QPI, not per L1.  He believed probably I wasn't adequate for him.]  
Unfortunately.  But I earned 0.9 pengos today, so I'm happy.  
I think, let's cook dinner, because that would please my parents, 
and show them that I'm not going to take my money and split.  
Do you agree?"  
@P"Yes, let's celebrate with your parents.  What shall we cook?  
Male, did you think about that?"  
@P"Of course I thought about that.  
We'll have lobster Newberg, and cabbage."  
[Lobster cabbage style??  Does "ga" get the conjunction joining
the right things?]  
@P"What?  That's a joke.  Cabbage is disgusting."  
@P"It tastes good!  Have you ever tasted cabbage Chinese style?  
Trust me on this."  
@P"OK.  Let's buy the food now.  Do you have your money?  
The lobsters will be expensive."  
@P"Right in my belt."  
@PSoon Tigereye and Karen carried the bag of food to his house.  
"Hi, mother!"  "Hi, Mrs. Chow!"  [Translate in Chinese, which turns
out here to be lexable Loglan: loi dzou taitai]  
"Hello," said his mother.  "Where's Dad," Tigereye asked.  
@P"Some machine broke just before he wanted to come home.  
He'll be along soon."  She was not full of enthusiasm.  
@P"Look what's for dinner!"  Tigereye lifted up the two spiny
lobsters from the sack.  They feebly waved their legs.  
@PThe mother said, "Hey!  You shouldn't have spent for that!  
You shouldn't dig into your savings.  You need the money
for your education.  
Leave your mother, and you run wild like the wind."  
@PTigereye replied, carefully controlling his teenage temper, 
"I didn't take from my savings.  I earned today the money I used
to pay for these.  I hoped we would celebrate that I'm
adult enough to do that."  
@P"No, you'll always be my baby!"  She started to cry.  
@P"Mother!  I'm not a baby!  I grew up.  Enjoy your grown-up baby."  
@P"What's this?  Are you telling me what to do?  
Suppose I don't, are you going to walk out on me?"  
@P"No, mother.  Everybody goes through life whether they like it or not.  
If you stop, I can't also, because it's me, not you, 
that's living my life.  Maybe that isn't very clear..."  
@PKaren interrupted, "The lobsters escaped!"  
They were actually slowly leaving the pile of food, 
but she could easily have restrained them.  
But she intended to interrupt.  
@PTigereye put them back on the pile.  
Correctly taking his cue from Karen, he asked, 
"Mother, would you give me some advice?  
I bought cabbage.  But maybe it doesn't go so well with lobster Newberg.  
What vegetable should we cook?"  
@P"So you still need your mother."  
[Moving out, even so (.unorau) you need me.]
@P"Yes, I'll always need and love you even though I'm grown up."  
@PShe gave a small smile and said, "Cook bai tsai and mushrooms.  
That goes better than cabbage with lobster.  
[da = "that" = the set, both foods -- Nalgol augmentation.]  
Cabbage goes well with beef or pork."  
@PTigereye's father arrived.  "Hey, what's that walking on the table?"  
Karen again restrained the lobsters.  
@P"We're celebrating my shop.  I brought spiny lobster for my family."  
@P"So I see.  Are you going to support the family now?"  
@P"Oh, crap.  I've upset you too."  
@PThe father laughed.  "Go ahead and support.  
But don't make like an adult before you're ready."  
@PTigereye lowered his eyes and replied, "I promise to
respect and follow you."  
@PHis father mussed his hair and said, "You don't need 
to make all these signs of submission.  Just do good.  
You're a good kid, I mean teenager, so you will, I'm sure.  
I respect you for taking responsibility for yourself.  
Let's celebrate.  Mother, is that how you feel?"  
@P"I don't much like that he's moved out.  
But he is a good teenager, and I guess I have to trust him."  
@P"That's a fact."  
@W2,@CGeneral Comments@W2,@E
@PThis story was written "directly" in Loglan, in the sense that I
did not first make an English draft of it.  
It is not true that I can think in Loglan (yet), but I tried
to simulate the result that might have been had I in fact
composed the entire text with no reference to English at all.  
Thus, I treated English slang, literary conventions, etc. as
out of bounds.  
In particular, I did not use the pervasive past tense that
English stories have.  
@PThis English translation is rather literal, so that style problems
in the Loglan can be recognized more easily.  
@PI feel like my vocabulary is at about the fifth grade level.  
Now this is far better than I can do after an equivalent amount
of study of French and Russian -- in those languages I am barely
competent to handle the minimum subset grammar, much less
a decent vocabulary.  
Nonetheless I feel frustrated.  
Many times I translated an internally coded meaning into Loglan, 
only to find later that the Loglan word I used was a whole lot less
specific than the English one I would have chosen.  
On the other hand, sometimes I could be more specific in Loglan.  
We shall have to see what, if anything, ought to be done about
my Loglan vocabulary.  
Perhaps I should go over the story and clean up
words that are not as specific as they might be.  
@PEnglish has a rich set of literary conventions, which of course are
absent in Loglan.  
I particularly missed "he said", "he cried", "he murmured", etc.: 
the side channel for feeding in information about the manner and
expression of the speaker.  
You will notice that I achieved their effect somewhat by, for example, 
"cue do jia clafo" etc.  
These expressions seem clumsy to me, but maybe this is just because
they aren't the English I am familiar with.  
@PJudged aesthetically, my "cue do" convention worked out adequately, 
though it isn't as agile as the English quoted strings.  
However, it is syntactically and semantically unambiguous.  
As anciently defined, li-lu quoted strings are unitary and opaque to the
parser.  
If this be accepted, the narrative and the strings are parseable
(separately), but it is impossible to coordinate pronouns, tense reference, 
etc. between them.  
A later proposal (formally implemented in the T.19 MacGram) 
was to parse quoted strings with the narrative and to ignore
the quotes when doing pronouns etc.  
Unfortunately, I fear that when the Understander goes to work
on multi-sentence quotes, the parser will have not yet completed
parsing the embracing narrative, leading to a stack corruption or worse.  
Also, one traditional use of quoted strings is for exact quotes; 
English of course is not super clear about when the quote is exact
======= BROKEN HERE
and when pronouns etc. are to be coordinated, but it doesn't matte
particularly
if an artificial intelligence is going to process this stuff, 
so I identified the speaker in every sentence, one way or another.  
@PI had trouble controlling forcefulness.  
The sequence where Ichiro suggests the welding idea is a good example, 
where a crescendo effect is desired but not perfectly achieved.  
"cao" here would be overkill.  
I find myself using "ia" for emphasis: "mi solcou ia pa le po
le laldo fumna ga nenkaa".  
"cao" again seems excessive, but "ia" seems misused ("i certainly belive"?)
What would you suggest?  
@PNotice that I use "nau" for scene changes, not for English "paragraphs"
(of which there are hundreds here).  
".iza nau" seems quite adequate in Loglan, but the English translations
come out seeming brutal and jerky.  
Is Loglan just more compact, or is the problem real?  
In other places too the flow seems jerky sometimes.  
Maybe I am inexpert in handling the Loglan.  
Or maybe I am inexpert in writing short stories.  
I felt in this one I had to cut and shorten to match the weight of
the material, and the patience of the audience, with the
words by which it was represented.  
Maybe I cut too much.  
@PI have great trouble translating "just" and "only".  
For example, "...better than just adequate" = "gudbi le pu sira tsufi", 
where "sira" = "sinera".  
Any suggestions for improvement?  
@PGiven sentences R .ucanoi S .i T .urau dui (or similar where
"dui" is replaced by some sentence including "tiu").  
What is the referent of "dui"?  
T:  usually I don't want this one, as in this causal connected example.  
S: usually this is what I want.  
R .ucanoi S: this is the obvious choice from purely mechanistic
syntax rules, but it's hard to interpret with "dui" because it's connected.  
@PIn a story like this, only the narrator can credibly use keks --
it's out of character for a teenage boy arguing with his mother
to use them even if he logli.  
What afterthought forms would you use to get the effect of
kinumoi R ki kinurau S ki T?  
R .umoi S .urau T means kinurau kinumoi R ki S ki T.  
You may have noticed my "ci" forms, by analogy to metaphor:  
R .umoi S .ucirau T, tightly binding S and T.  
Somebody else already is using .icikou etc, but I am not sure
how they define "ci" forms.  
>@ <EOF>