Lesson 7
zemoi seltadni
Relationships
bridi
7.1
zo'e
me zo zo'e
When we discussed ellipsis in Lesson 5, our examples were limited,
showing a couple of things that aren't always true:
- if ellipsis is used, it always takes place at the end of the bridi;
i.e., the last place(s) are the ones left out;
- if ellipsis is being used, it is desirable to have it invisible, so
we say nothing in the missing places.
Taking these in order, suppose that you want to talk about going
somewhere (let's say Detroit) in your car (a Toyota), but the route is
irrelevant as well as the origin. You start out:
mi cu klama la deTROIT. ...
How do we continue? We probably know where we are starting from, but
it isn't important since our listener is also at that origin and it is
obvious from context. You could say "ti" and be done with the
problem, but then you need to worry about the x4 'route' place. You
obviously are going to Detroit by some route, but you haven't thought
about it, and you don't want to think about it now in order to make
your statement. On the other hand, you may be explaining to your auto
repairperson why you need her/him to check your car thoroughly. So
the x5 place is important to your statement, even though x3 and x4 are
none of the repairperson's concern.
As an example of the second assumption being false, we have the
English: "I'm going somewhere." It is obvious to the listener that if
the speaker is going, that the speaker is going 'somewhere'. What is
being conveyed is that the speaker (ko'a) envisions going to someplace
specific which ko'a does not wish to verbalize. This could be for any
number of reasons, including the possibility that ko'a hasn't yet
identified or labelled specifically where ko'a is going.
The cmavo "zo'e" has been specifically invented to deal with these
problems. It stands for a sumti value that has been ellipsized,
i.e. the "somewhere", or "something" that has been left out. (It does
not substitute for ALL English occurrences of "something" or
"someone".)
We can thus complete our first elliptical statement as:
mi cu klama la deTROIT. zo'e zo'e la toiotas.
and thus we have specified the contents of each place of the bridi
such that we know which sumti place 'the Toyota' belongs in. This
sentence then translates approximately as:
"I go to Detroit (from somewhere via some route) in the Toyota."
or colloquially":
"I'm taking the Toyota to Detroit."
Note that, like "ma", each occurrence of "zo'e" can refer to a
different 'something'; "zo'e" is a place filler and carries no
specific semantic information such as a correlation with other uses of
"zo'e". This is in contrast with "ko'a", for example, which holds the
same meaning until specifically reassigned, and "ti", which holds its
meaning as long as you point, or for the length of the sentence if
actual pointing isn't used. ("ti" can extend over multiple sentences
if you keep 'pointing', but in effect you are renewing the meaning of
"ti" with each new sentence. "ti" can also be used for several
different things in the same sentence, if you point at different
things as you talk.)
"zo'e" is a member of selma'o KOhA; it has the same grammar as "ti",
"mi", and "ko'a", and can be used in any sumti position, just as those
other members of KOhA can. Like the other members of KOhA, "zo'e" is
neither singular nor plural.
7.2
Observative bridi
zgabri
When you want to leave out the first sumti place, you can use "zo'e".
There is an easier approach, however, which is based on our discussion
before Exercise 2-1. When using the standard order ONLY, you can just
omit the x1 place. Since there remains no sumti before the selbri,
you also leave the "cu" off - it has nothing to mark the end of.
Omitting the x1 sumti brings the selbri to the front of the sentence,
where it becomes the most emphatic part of the sentence. A close
English equivalent is the shout of "Fire!" upon seeing smoke. You
could say "Something is on fire!". This wouldn't convey the urgency
and importance of the shorter expression. The same is true in Lojban,
except that the use of the shorter expression is not limited to times
of urgency or danger.
As examples, we'll give a couple of common English expressions:
"Someone's coming."
The times when you might say this expression are varied, and at least
two Lojban equivalents exist to cover these usages. If what is
important is that you observe people, you can say simply:
prenu
There is no need to express sumti for "prenu", the brivla alone
conveys the important message to the listener, who doesn't really care
who the people are in the circumstances when you use this statement.
If the important thing is that the people are approaching, not just
that you observe people, then a Lojbanist omits the reference to
people and says simply:
klama
or, elaborating minimally
klama ti
In this way, the important factor, the movement, is emphasized.
The second example from English is:
"It is raining."
What is 'it'? Do you care? The Lojban equivalent uses the brivla
(not in this lesson's regular vocabulary):
carvi
omitting the sumti and the superfluous wording of the English
equivalent.
This variety of language is very useful anytime you observe something
(hence the term 'observative') that you want to briefly or quickly
call the attention of others to. You highlight the selbri, which
conveys the basic meaning of the sentence, and elliptically omit
everything else. In English, we use this a lot (e.g. calling off a
checklist), but English observatives are considered 'ungrammatical' in
educated conversation. In Lojban, observatives ARE grammatical and
encouraged when you want to emphasize the selbri.
A slightly related use of observatives is with children and people new
to Lojban. In Lojban, as with English, we often want to use
simplified structures when talking to either group of people to make
understanding easier. Observatives are the simplest structures of
all, often single words.
Children use single word observative 'sentences' as they learn
English. These observatives acquire the stigma of 'baby talk', and
are not considered grammatical. In Lojban, it is neither
ungrammatical nor 'baby talk' to point at things and say "ninmu",
"tavla", "kabri", or "kukte", while in most instances, the English
counterparts of the first three: "Woman!", "Talker!", or "Cup!" would
cause others to question your command of English. Surprisingly, with
most adjectives, like "Delicious!", the stigma of the observative does
not occur when used by adults, even though the 'sentence' is no more
grammatical than the other three.
(Note that, at least in print, English cannot distinguish between the
imperative and the observative "Talk!". "Fire!" has ended up having
two entirely different and valid meanings due to this problem. The
use of "ko" to mark the imperative is thus extremely useful in
distinguishing two important uses of language.)
The simple observative will no doubt be extremely useful in teaching
Lojban to children. As they grow, they will add to this simple
structure, but they will retain it as a valuable part of their Lojban
repertoire.
vau; ELISION
How do you end a Lojban sentence? Not with a period, of course. It
is used in too many other ways. Of course, if you pause long enough
after:
mi cu klama
others will presume that no more sumti are to follow, and you are done
with the sentence. A similar method is used in spoken English, the
period being a visual clue only - one which doesn't even uniquely
represent a spoken pause. In Lojban, you may also mark the end of a
sentence by clearly starting a new one, as with ".i". But this is
unsatisfying, especially since you don't want to always have to start
a new sentence to end the previous one. (".i" by itself wouldn't
work; the listener would wait for the rest of the new sentence that
this word implies. ".i" marks a continuation into a new sentence; it
is NOT a Lojban 'period'.)
What if you want to specifically indicate that you are done, that you
are not still thinking about what to say, and that any remaining
unspecified sumti are to be presumed as ellipsis.
Lojban uses the word "vau" for this terminator of a bridi. "vau"
means simply that there are no more sumti to be expressed in this
bridi. It doesn't rule out the possibility of another sentence, which
would still start with ".i", but it clearly ends the bridi of this
sentence.
You can hang things on the end of "vau", like the vocatives of Lesson
2, so "vau" doesn't necessarily solve our problem completely. "vau"
says that there is no more to the bridi, but not that you are done
talking. It can be followed by another sentence, or by the limited
variety of things like vocatives that are neither part of the sentence
nor truly apart from it.
The use of "vau" is seldom required, although it can clearly be useful
in certain circumstances. But "vau" is always permitted at the end of
a sentence bridi as a kind of super-ellipsis: an always sufficient
number of explicitly spoken "zo'e"s.
Because it is always permitted, but not always required, we can in
effect think of "vau" as the equivalent of the period that ends every
sentence. The "vau" is always 'there', even when it is not spoken or
written. This is indeed the way "vau" is defined in the grammar.
When you omit "vau", probably most of the time, you are said to be
'eliding' the "vau". 'Elision' of optional cmavo like "vau" is common
in Lojban. For example, the "cu" that we have placed in every
sentence example so far, is usually not necessary (in fact, it hasn't
been truly necessary in any example sentence so far - but more on that
later in the lesson); "cu" is normally 'elidable'. The Lojban
expression for 'elision' is 'cmavo nalnunsku', or 'cmavo
non-expression'; note the similarity to sumti nalnunsku, the ellipsis
of sumti.
We will return to elision at various times in later lessons,
especially when we introduce cmavo that can be elided. We will treat
the concept in more depth in Lesson 16.
7.3
Conversion
***
In exercise 2-1, Part 4, where we had you devising keyword equivalents
for the non-x1 places of each brivla, we had in mind the specific
purpose of preparing you for Lojban 'conversion'. Not conversion to
Lojban (we hope that you are already prepared for that), but
conversion within Lojban. The term 'conversion' in this case derives
from 'converse', a term which denotes that two things are being
interchanged to form a kind of 'opposite'. In the case of Lojban
conversion, the two things being interchanged are places in the place
structure of a bridi.
Specifically, in any bridi, conversion will result in the interchange
of one of the other sumti places with the x1 place. Conversion is
indicated by the cmavo of selma'o SE, namely "se", "te", "ve", and
"xe". These respectively refer to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th conversion,
and conveniently are built from consecutive Lojban consonants to make
them easy to remember. You will use them a lot.
2nd conversion with "se" is the interchange of the x1 and x2 sumti
places. 3rd conversion with "te" is, of course, the interchange of
the x1 and x3 places. 4th conversion with "ve" interchanges the x1
and x4 places, and 5th conversion with "xe" interchanges the x1 and x5
places. The SE cmavo is placed immediately before a brivla. It
causes any places of that brivla to be appropriately interchanged.
The resulting place structure is renumbered, so you have a new x1
sumti after conversion.
Why do you convert brivla? To allow you to put a different sumti in
the x1 position and thus to say it first. This emphasizes that sumti
over the other ones and specifically over the old x1 sumti that would
otherwise have gone first; since you have presumably converted the
brivla for a reason, the juxtaposition provides extra emphasis on the
new x1 sumti.
Let us take our well-worn example based on klama:
mi cu klama la bastn. la .atlentas. ti la ford.
which translates as:
"I go to Boston from Atlanta via this-here using the Ford."
By using 2nd conversion on "klama", we get:
la bastn. cu se klama mi la .atlentas. ti la ford.
or:
"Boston is (a destination) gone to by me from Atlanta via this-here
using the Ford."
or colloquially:
"Boston is where I go from Atlanta over this route in the Ford."
Similarly, by using 3rd conversion, we get:
la .atlentas. cu te klama la bastn. mi ti la ford.
or:
"Atlanta is (an origin) gone from (to Boston) by me via this-here
using the Ford."
As you can see, the topic of the sentence has clearly changed to the
new x1 place, and the old x1 ("mi") has been de-emphasized. For 3rd
and higher conversions, the intervening places are also de-emphasized,
as shown in the parenthesis that were needed to make the last English
translation read naturally.
Conversion is a close counter part to what is called 'the passive
voice' in English. Most verbs in English can be expressed in the
passive voice. In Lojban, ALL brivla can be made 'passive'. The term
'passive' is used, by the way, based on the normal occurrence of an
'active' subject for a verb, often a person. When the passive voice
is used, the 'actor' becomes less important, a 'passive' recipient of
whatever happens. Some English verbs are naturally built as passives:
"He is named 'John'."
All Lojban bridi presume that the x1 place is the topic or focus of
the sentence; it is presumably the most interesting or informative of
the sumti to the listener. Conversion does not necessarily make that
place 'passive', although that is a possible interpretation. Thus, we
would normally express this last English sentence as:
zo. djan. cu cmene ko'a
"'John' benames him."
although:
ko'a cu se cmene zo. djan.
"He is named 'John'."
is a slightly more wordy, but more exact, English translation.
One last point about conversion. It is possible to use conversion on
Lojban brivla to interchange the x1 sumti with a non-existent place.
The grammar neither knows nor cares how many sumti a bridi has, as
long as they are well-formed. The exact place structure is a question
of semantics or meaning. Converting non-existent places is thus
grammatical, but devoid of meaning.
7.4
Negation
jitfa cusku
We introduced "na" in Lesson 1 as a word which negates a bridi. In
some of the examples, you may have noticed a comparatively peculiar
way of indicating the negation in translation. Given the example:
la rik. cu na nelci la fred.
"Rick is-not-fond-of Fred."
we show the negation as blending into the relation. This is partly
because Lojban has no 'copula' (the "is" in the English), and we want
to discourage you, an English speaker, from thinking of it in looking
at the Lojban.
More importantly, negation of a selbri has a specific effect on the
meaning of the sentence. If I say that:
la djos. cu klama la denvr.
"Joe goes to Denver."
is false, I am not saying why it is false. Possible reasons could
include: "Joe didn't but Pete did.", "Joe went to Chicago, not
Denver.", "Joe didn't need to go because he was already there.", and
"Joe didn't go; he stayed at home." Negation of the selbri says
basically that the relationship among the sumti places does not apply.
It does not indicate anything about any other set of sumti, nor does
it say whether any other relationship might hold.
In the first example, the Lojban indicates that Rick doesn't 'like'
Fred. Negation says the relationship is false; the Lojban does not
indicate that the opposite is true: that 'Rick dislikes Fred.' The
statement:
la rik. cu na nelci la fred.
is true if Rick has never met Fred.
Negation takes lower 'precedence' than conversion. If you want to
negate and convert a brivla, you MUST convert first and then negate.
Because of the parenthesis rule of innermost first:
la denvr. cu na xe klama is valid
and
*la denvr. cu xe na klama is invalid and ungrammatical
for
"Denver is not a mode of transportation."
Exercise 7-1
larnuntoi zepi'epamoi
Express the following concepts as conversions of brivla.
1. the result of a change (binxo)
2. the result of a directed change (galfi)
3. purpose for doing something (zukte)
4. gift (dunda)
5. path of motion (muvdu)
6. decision (jdice)
7. judgement (pajni)
8. beneficiary (cpacu)
9. beneficiary (dunda)
10. memory (morji)
11. beverage (pinxe)
12. tea leaves (tcati)
13. greetings (rinsa)
14. relationship (ckini)
15. climbing implements (cpare)
7.5
Simple Description With le
selgadri be zo le
Having looked at the bridi as a whole, and specifically at the selbri,
let us now turn to the sumti.
All sumti are interchangeable and equal. All have identical grammar.
Anything that can go in one sumti place of one bridi can go into a
different sumti place in a different bridi.
There are several possible forms for sumti. We have covered some of
them. We will review these for you in a summary list:
- KOhA pro-sumti, including:
- variables ko'a and ko'e;
- personals mi, do, and mi'o;
- demonstratives ti, ta, and tu;
- question ma;
- ellipsis marker zo'e;
- imperative marker ko
- reference to the previous sentence with "di'u";
- reference to the referent of the previous sentence with "la'edi'u";
- names marked by "la", meaning "the one(s) called {name}";
- quotation of individual words with "zo";
- quotation of grammatical Lojban with "lu ... li'u";
- quotation of Lojban words that may not be grammatical expressions with "lo'u ... le'u";
There are several more, that have not yet been covered, but we will
add the single most important one in this lesson. That is
'description' using "le". If you have been trying to use the brivla
vocabulary in sentences, you have probably had trouble coming up with
meaningful sumti values for some of the places. You can say an awful
lot with what we've covered so far, but pointing at things and using
"ti" and "ta" does not satisfy; one reason being that some concepts
cannot be pointed at.
le" is one of the most powerful words in Lojban. Simply put, it takes
a whole bridi and turns it into a sumti that can be used in another
bridi.
Most Lojban sentences contain at least one "le", or one of its near
relatives that we will learn about in later lessons. Thus, it can be
said that most Lojban sentences are really sentences within sentences.
With the full power of the language, you can continue sticking
sentences within sentences indefinitely, resulting in an extremely
complex super-sentence. This super-sentence, if built according to
the rules of Lojban grammar, will completely and uniquely resolve down
to the lowest brivla sub-sentence within, such that you can tell how
all the pieces of the various bridi in the sentence relate to each
other.
If it is too complex, you might have to write the sentence down just
to keep track of all the loose pieces. However, you will find that
you can keep track of far more pieces in your head than you can in a
comparably complex English sentence. There are only a couple of kinds
of structures possible, all very similar to the sentence pattern you
already know, and each one is used for a specific purpose in the
overall structure.
Now, at least so far, most Lojban conversational sentences go only a
couple of levels deep in this unfolding structure. But it is nice to
know that when you have a truly complex statement to make, the
language will be 'up to it' and still retain its unambiguity.
In this lesson we are going to stick to the simplest forms of
description with "le". In this form we take a simple selbri, stick
"le" in front of it, and the closing marker "ku" on the end of it, and
stick the whole mess into any sumti place of another bridi. We will
not discuss how to attach sumti to a description bridi in this lesson;
you can express an awful lot without going to that next level of
complexity.
When we stick "le" in front, it is somewhat like using the English
article "the"; the literal definition is "the one(s) I am describing
as". The effect is to take that all-important x1 topic place, and
treat it something like a noun. This is a little bit of a gloss, but
will give you an idea how to start interpreting "le" descriptions.
The conversion operators, and to a lesser extent the negation
operator, thus become important in making sure the right sumti aspect
of the selbri becomes the basis for the description.
What can be in the selbri that we make into a description? Anything
that is valid in ANY Lojban selbri. So far, this includes the
possibilities:
- mo
- any brivla
- any converted brivla
In using any of the above in a description, there is nothing special about how you do so, provided that you
surround the selbri with "le" and "ku". It is that simple.
Let's give some examples. Then we'll see what YOU can do.
7.6
Examples
mupli
7.6.1
rik.: ma cu botpi
What is-a-bottle?
alis.: le midju ku cu botpi
the middle-one is-a-bottle.
rik.: ma cu kunti
What is-empty?
alis.: le tanxe ku cu kunti
The box is-empty.
rik.: ma cu culno
What is-full?
alis.: le botpi ku cu culno le vanju ku .i le kabri cu culno le sodva ku
The bottle is-full with the wine. The cup is-full with the soda.
rik.: ma cu zunle le botpi ku
What is-to-the-left of the bottle?
alis.: le kunti ku cu zunle le botpi ku
The empty-one is-to-the left of the bottle.
7.6.2
zo le cu gadri .i zo la cu gadri
"le" is-an-article. "la" is-an-article.
7.6.3
mi cu bajra la .alis. le stizu ku
I run to Alice from the chair.
la .alis. cu se bajra mi le stizu ku
Alice is-run-to by me from the chair.
[or: To Alice runs me from the chair.]
la .alis. cu se bajra mi
Alice is-run-to by me.
le stizu ku cu te bajra la .alis. mi
The chair is-run-from, with-destination Alice, by-runner me.
le stizu ku cu te bajra
The chair is-run-from.
7.6.4
le cakla ku cu kukte mi
The chocolate is-delicious to me.
mi cu se kukte le cakla ku
I am-"delicioused-to" by the chocolate.
[or: I find-delicious the chocolate.]
7.6.5
ti cu kumfa le dinju ku
This is-a-room of the building.
le dinju ku cu se kumfa ti
The building is-"be-roomed" by this.
le dinju ku cu se kumfa
The building is-"be-roomed" [or: has-a-room].
di'u cu nandu
The-last-sentence is difficult.
7.6.6
mi cu pinxe le ckafi ku le kabri ku
I drink the coffee from the cup.
le pinxe ku cu nelci le ckafi ku
The drink-er likes the coffee.
ti cu ckafi
This is-coffee.
le ckafi ku cu glare
The coffee is-warm.
mi cu lenku .i ko cu dunda le glare ku mi
I am-cold. Give the warm-thing to me.
7.6.7
alis.: ma cu jibri do
What is-the-job of you?
rik.: mi cu ctuca
I teach. [or: I am a teacher.]
alis.: le mintu ku cu jibri la fred.
The same-thing is-the-job of Fred.
.i mi fanva zo'e la Inglec
I translate (something) into English.
7.6.8
djos.: le tanxe ku cu blanu .i le pinsi ku cu na blanu
The box is-blue. The pencil is-not-blue.
.i ko cu cpacu le na blanu ku doi .alis.
Get the non-blue-thing, O Alice.
alis.: mi cu cpacu le pinsi ku
I get the pencil.
djos.: ki'e .alis. .i ko cu dunda le se cpacu ku la rik.
Thanks, Alice. Give the thing-gotten to Rick.
alis.: mi cu dunda le se cpacu ku la rik.
I give the thing-gotten to Rick.
rik.: mi cu te dunda le pinsi la .alis.
I am-the-one-to-whom-is-given the pencil by Alice.
Exercise 7-1
larnuntoi zepi'epamoi
Choose at least 10 brivla from this lesson's vocabulary. Make up a
sentence for each. There are specific things to try to accomplish in
your various sentences.
Use at least one "le" description in some sumti place of each sentence
(hopefully more - don't just choose brivla with only one sumti).
Use as many different brivla as possible in your various sentences.
Try to use as many as possible of the other sumti types you've learned
about somewhere in your sentences.
Make at least one sentence where the main selbri has been negated.
Make at least one sentence where the main selbri has been converted
with any of the conversion operators.
Make at least one sentence where the selbri in a description bridi has
been converted with any of the conversion operators.
Use "zo'e" for ellipsis in at least one sentence.
Make at least one sentence an observative.
Translate each sentence fairly literally into English, as we have been
doing for examples presented. Note in your translations of
description sumti that they can be plural rather than singular; don't
worry about English verb agreement with singular or plural.
At your next class session, upon arriving:
1. Pair off with another student. (Last arrival in an odd-numbered
class should pair with the instructor, who should also have sentences
just in case.)
2. One of you go first, reading one of your sentences aloud slowly.
Give the other a chance to transcribe your sentence as read. Compare
your sentence to the other person's transcription. Note any
difficulties in pronunciation or listening that led to differences.
In transcribing, don't worry about correctness of sentences.
3. The listener should then give his/her translation of the sentence.
If it differs from the one the speaker wrote down in advance, work
together to try to figure out why. (it is possible that both are
correct).
4. Switch roles and repeat steps 2. and 3.
Continue alternating, doing one sentence at a time, until the
instructor halts the activity (which should continue for quite a
while). If you find that neither of you is having problems with
transcription of the other's readings, then stop doing step 2, and
only do step 3.
Extra Challenge -
Write sentences using brivla that are traditionally 'nouns' in English
as the main selbri, then translate the sentence treating the selbri as
a verb.
Write sentences using brivla that are traditionally 'adjectives' in
English as the main selbri, then translate the sentence treating the
selbri as a verb.
Write sentences using brivla that are traditionally 'verbs' in English
as selbri in "le" descriptions, then translate the sentence treating
the resulting sumti as a noun.
Write sentences using brivla that are traditionally 'adjectives' in
English as selbri in "le" descriptions, then translate the sentence
treating the resulting sumti as a noun.
Answers to Exercise 7.1
1. se binxo 9. te dunda
2. te galfi 10. se morji
3. te zukte 11. se pinxe
4. se dunda 12. se tcati
5. xe muvdu 13. te rinsa
6. se jdice 14. te ckini
7. se pajni 15. xe cpare (this could include arms and
legs)
8. ve cpacu
A-2-1
A-2-1