Part I What is Lojban? la lojban. mo (/lah,LOHZH,bahn. mo/) Part I consists of an overview of the nature of Lojban. First is an introduction describing the purpose of the language and how to use this book. Then one summary lesson presents the basic concepts of Lojban grammar. With these basic concepts, and a very small vocabulary, a variety of Lojban sentences can be constructed. The concepts described in this part form the basis of a more detailed discussion in Part II. Lesson 0 nomoi seltadni (/NO,moy sehl,TAHD,nee/) Introduction to Lojban pamoi nu cilre la lojban. (/PAH,moy noo,SHEEL,reh,lah,LOHZH,bahn./) What is Lojban? Lojban is an artificial language, the major accomplishment of a 35-year research project into the nature of human language. Dr. James Cooke Brown, founder of this project, called it 'The Loglan Project'; Lojban is a specific version of the generic language called 'Loglan'. Brown originally designed Loglan to test a controversial idea in linguistics called the Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis. As others became involved in the research, a variety of other goals arose in linguistics research, computers and artificial intelligence, intercultural communication, and education. Loglan/Lojban is thus unique, among artificial languages, in having several useful purposes incorporated into its design. Because of this, Lojban attracts people with a variety of in- terests. Diversity will sustain Lojban's growth and ensure that it finds acceptance as a useful tool of analysis and communication. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is named for linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, who helped set forth the idea of 'cultural relativism'. Cultural relativism specifies that there is a close relationship between the structure of a language and the culture that uses that language. There are several interpretations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. These versions differ on how strong the relationship is thought to be between language and culture, and what 'Sapir-Whorf effects' might be seen in a culture derived from a particular language. The 'version' of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis guiding Lojban development states that "the structures of language constrains the thought patterns of participants in the culture associated with that language." Lojban attempts to test this hypothesis by removing constraints in several areas of language use, while imposing other constraints not found in natural languages. Lojban was designed to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: "the structure of language constrains the thought patterns of participants in the culture associated with that language." Much of linguistic academia abandoned the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in the late 1950s. They were unable to even agree on what the hypothesis meant, much less on how to test it. One problem was the difficulty in sorting out 'Sapir-Whorf effects' from other factors that might affect culture (like history and geography). Another was the difficulty of differentiating between language constraints on cultural thought, and cultural effects that dictate the evolution of a language. Meanwhile, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis became intellectually (and politically) unfashionable, because some people used it to justify racist ideas regarding the supposed superiority or inferiority of specific cultures. In 1955, Dr. Brown suggested that a constructed language, free of ties to a particular culture, would help distinguish causes from effects. By engineering specific and unusual structural features into the constructed language, the effects of those features could be more easily detected. He chose to devise a language based on logic, a "logical language", hence "Loglan". ("Lojban" is the same contraction using words from within the Lojban language instead of English words). Brown's language incorporated the well-understood concepts and structures of symbolic logic into its structure, and attempted to avoid ambiguities that could confuse those well-formed structures. Inventing a fully-expressive language from scratch is difficult. Inventing one that was both to- tally different from all other languages and still able to express the full range of ideas conveyed by language proved a daunting task. Brown and others re-engineered Loglan several times as they found weaknesses in the original design, and as the science of linguistics provided new knowledge of the essential properties of languages. Finally, in 1987, the Loglan development effort passed to a new generation of Loglanists led by The Logical Language Group, Inc., who completed Lojban in ***. While it is no longer the sole reason for Lojban's development, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis remains an essential underlying concept behind its design. Interestingly, as Lojban is completed, renewed interest in the hypothesis has surfaced, for reasons related to those that caused its submersion in the 1950s. Do specific properties of 'Black English' hinder the education of American blacks? Does the lack of a gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun in English, and the default of grammatical 'person' to masculine forms enhance inequality between the sexes and cause sexual stereotyping? For these controversial ideas to be true, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis must be true. Questions have arisen in other fields that seem related to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, most notably in the computer industry. Would a 'natural-language-like' interface between computers and people enhance the understanding of computers and the productivity of their users? Does the icon- graphics-based Apple Macintosh interface lead to 'sloppier thinking' than the 'glass-typewriter' MS- DOS computer interface? The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has also permeated the study of literature. The hypothesis has been particularly significant in semiotics (the study of signs and symbols in language and literature). The Lojban effort has now added new goals totally unrelated to this original one. People have recognized the following, among others: - research into linguistics and the nature of language; - artificial intelligence; - human-computer communication; - computer translation of natural language text; - education in the use of language as a tool of thought; - education in language as a reflection of culture; - more rapid learning of foreign languages, with Lojban as a first step; - creative personal exploration of new ideas. These are only a few possibilities. New uses for Lojban are continuously being proposed as more and more people learn the language. Now, Lojban is ready for you to learn and apply to your goals. You will be a pioneer in a new language, just as Chaucer and Shakespeare were pioneers in the literary use of English. You can work toward any of the above applications for Lojban, or you can devise new ones that suit your interests. You will learn to think clearly and analytically, when it is important to do so. Yet you also will discover creative uses of language, thought and expression. Lojban is an extraordinary language. Unlike any other language intended for human communication, Lojban has an unambiguous grammar. Unlike any other language, Lojban has the basic structures of formal logic embedded in its architecture. Yet Lojban is a language that transcends grammar and logic, having a potential expressive power superior to any single natural language. That power is only a potential. A language must be used - for communication, for expression - in order to live. This book seeks to teach you to use Lojban, to make it alive. Exercise 0-1 larnuntoi nopi'epamoi (/lahr,NOON,toy NOH,pee,heh,PAH,moy/) The following questions are especially suitable to group discussion, but are worth thinking about on your own as well. 1. Can you think of any ways not mentioned in which language might affect the thought patterns of those who use it? 2. Is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis racist? Why or why not? 3. Exceptional individuals like Einstein break new ground in thought, though they may use the same language as everyone else. Is this evidence against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? 4. Could Sapir-Whorf effects be detected in individuals, or only in an entire culture raised from birth speaking the same language? Is there a middle ground? 5. Does learning any new language invoke Sapir-Whorf effects in individuals by providing new and different structures around which to frame our ideas? Would a language more different in structure from your native language be more effective in invoking such effects? 6. Are such effects as those implied in 5. of the same scale and significance as culture-wide effects that might be caused by constraints in language? In the remainder of this lesson we will examine two key concepts underpinning Lojban's design that are key to understanding several aspects of that design. These are cultural neutrality, and avoiding constraints on thought. We will then discuss how you can tailor your use of this book and your efforts at learning Lojban to your goals. Cultural Neutrality kulnu ka nutli (/KOOL,noo kah,NOOT,lee/) All major goals for Lojban rely on a key design principle, cultural neutrality. What does this mean, and why is it important? There are an enormous number of features of language that we use without being conscious of them. Some of these features are common to all languages; others are unique to specific languages, or even to specific people who use those languages. Cultural neutrality is the attempt to avoid language usage favoring forms used by one culture, at the expense of equally valid forms used in other cultures. For Lojban, neutrality also includes attempting to make the language approximately equal in learning difficulty for people of different cultures. There is particular effort toward preventing biases in favor of American English forms in Lojban, since most of the Lojban developers and early students are native speakers of that language. English speakers trying unfamiliar expressions in Lojban are prone to incorporate familiar usages from English into Lojban when they aren't appropriate. Cultural neutrality is the avoidance of language usages that favor the forms used by one culture. Among these usages are idioms, set expressions that have a meaning not necessarily implied by the words and their grammar. Thus, in greeting someone with the 'question' "How are you?", we do not expect to be answered by a statement of the respondent's personal situation. On the other hand, if we are visiting a person in a hospital, that is exactly what we seek with the question. As another example, consider what it means to "make do"? There are more subtle idioms as well. The saying "time flies like an arrow" has at least four totally unrelated English meanings: - the traditional aphorism, where "flies" is the verb, and the phrase "time flies" is a figure-of- speech connoting the apparent rate at which time passes; - a sentence with the same grammatical interpretation, but literally claiming that time is a physical object, streamlined to minimize drag and prevent tumbling, and propelled by a bow; - one corresponding to "fruit flies like a banana", where "like" is the verb; - one suggesting that the listener needs a stopwatch or a stroboscope, where "time" is the verb. Even more subtly, hidden metaphors often pass unrecognized. The word "up" and related words convey several metaphorical meanings: - happiness ("I'm feeling up.") - consciousness ("Wake up") - health and life ("I'm in tip-top shape." "Lazarus rose from the dead.") - control and decision ("I'm on top of the situation." "It's up to you.") - increase ("Unemployment rose last month.") - the future ("What's up on today's schedule?") - high status ("She's high on the list." "He's climbing the ladder.") - virtue ("A high-minded citizen") - good quality ("Things are looking up.") - rationality ("To succeed, you must rise above your emotions.") - the unknown ("It's still up in the air."). "Down" has associations with the opposites of each of these properties. Another example: English speakers associate "blue" with sadness, "white" with 'good', "black" with evil, "green" with envy, and so forth. NOT ALL LANGUAGES MAKE THESE SAME ASSOCIATIONS. Some languages asso- ciate the future with "down"; others make no association at all. If Lojban's effects are to be detectable in all cultures, only metaphors derived directly from the meaning of the words in context can be permitted. These metaphors may be important to how we think. In English, we talk about arguing using the metaphors of war ("He shot down all my arguments."). Might such language encourage arguments to lead to violence? If the language we use to talk about arguments refers to them as ways of resolving disagreements through communication and cooperation, or as means of evaluating different points of view (not necessarily seeing "differing" as "competing"), might violence be less common? Related to these metaphors are the symbolic effects of words and ideas. Sex and various bodily functions are taboos in our culture; there are similar taboos in other cultures, but with varying degrees. Western culture associates black with evil and death; white with virtue, purity, and life. Chinese culture associates white with death and illness. In China, owls symbolize death, and bats symbolize life. Words and their meanings aren't the only cultural biases in language. Grammar also has effects, often more profound. Japanese women use vastly different language than Japanese men. Japanese also has 'honorific' words relating to social rank; omitting these causes offense. English uses forms of "have", "be" and "will" as auxiliaries to modify tense ("I have eaten." "I am eating." "I will eat."); Italian often uses the equivalents of "come" and "go" in addition to "have" and "will", and Rumanian uses "wish" as a future tense auxiliary. Other languages have totally different methods of conveying subtleties of time and order relationships. There are languages where it is impossible to make direct claims about another person's feelings. One can say the equivalent of "I want this.", but only "John seems to want this." Most people with any knowledge of foreign languages know that many languages have more explicit systems of declensions that convey much grammatical information. (We tend to think English is free of declensions; it is not. In some aspects, English is more complex and more ir- regular than most languages.) These declensions convey information about person (whether the speaker, the listener, or someone or something else is being discussed), number (where what is being discussed is singular or plural, but dual is a separate 'number' in Arabic and other languages), tense (the time and sometimes the location of an event), gender (masculine and feminine, but also sometimes neuter; grammatical gender may have little correlation with the actual gender of the person or creature; Swahili has over a dozen different grammatical genders.), and mood or modality (how the speaker relates to the statement - whether it is claimed, hypothesized, or asked about). You also may be familiar with case, which conveys the role within the sentence of different pieces of that sentence. English has the nominative case for 'subjects' of sentences, and the accusative case for most of the other 'objects' in a sentence. You can recognize these cases by the choice you subconsciously make between "I" and "me" when referring to yourself. English also has the genitive case, known to many of us as the possessive. Other languages have 8 or more cases, and attach significant differences in meaning to the use of each. Still other languages have case systems that work entirely differently than English's. Some languages do not have 'nominative' or 'accusative' cases. Often, these languages make significant grammar distinctions between active or ergative causing of an event as opposed to being a passive subject of the event. In such languages, "Jack fell down the hill" must distinguish grammatically between whether he jumped intentionally, slipped, or was pushed. English speakers seldom recognize the use of language features such as animism (using different words or grammar for less 'advanced' forms of life, and for non-life). Animism is present in English, though not important. For example, we often talk about a pet animal or even a human baby as "it", when "he" or "she" is clearly more appropriate (and known to us). We very rarely use a gendered pronoun in talking about insects. Yet we would never talk about another adult human as "it" except in insult. We are more careful about the gender of pronouns when talking about 'higher' forms of life. Other languages have more profound 'animism' effects, changing both word structures and words, depending on how adult-human-like the referent of the pronoun is. The list of differences between languages could go on indefinitely. The examples given, however, show that we are often unaware of important distinctions that we make in language. We often judge the ideas and people of other cultures based on these hidden distinctions. Khrushchev's statement "we will bury you" heightened Cold War tensions. English speakers interpreted this as a statement of aggression. The Russian usage meant merely that Khrushchev expected communism to outlast capitalism, on the Russian metaphor that longer-lived people bury those who die before them. Significant cultural biases could have devastating effects on whether Lojban can meet its goals. Accidental Sapir-Whorf effects from bias might dwarf or conceal the effects from the intentional effects from design feature built into the language. The Khrushchev example shows how computer- aided translation would suffer if figurative usages cannot be recognized as such. Similarly, biases would seriously reduce Lojban's usefulness for intercultural communication. Lojban will be less acceptable to other cultures if they perceive the language as too much like 'Imperialistic English'. As you learn Lojban, you will often compose expressions that reveal these biases. Every Lojban speaker born to another language will do so. It is important that you try to catch these biased usages as often as you can, but also to accept your limitations. Equally important is to watch for biased usages by others and politely and gently to correct them (but not in a way that interferes with communication). Learn to accept similar correction from others as helpful assistance. Try to learn these skills when speaking Lojban with native speakers of your language. You will then be much more effective at communicating in Lojban with those from other cultures. Those others will be similarly working to avoid the different biases present in their native languages. Exercise 0-2 larnuntoi nopi'eremoi (/lahr,NOON,toy NOH,pee,heh,REH,moy/) For thought and discussion: 1. Devise English examples using 'down' as a metaphor for each of the opposite values of those described in the section for 'up'. 2. Devise examples for the English metaphors of love as a 'journey', as a 'physical force', as 'insanity', as 'magic', and as 'war'. 3. Devise examples for the English metaphors of ideas or theories as 'buildings', 'food', 'people', 'plants', 'products', 'commodities', 'resources', 'money', and 'fashions'. 4. If the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis were true, how might the culture using a language differ from yours if gender was totally absent from the grammar, even from pronouns? (This is true of Lojban.) 5. If the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis were true, how might the culture using a language differ from yours if there was no distinction of number between singular and plural? For example, would people lose their individuality if they could not distinguish between "I" and "we"? (This is partially true of Lojban. Lojban has no grammatical singular and plural. Lojban can distinguish between "I" and "we", but not at the most basic level of usage; the normal contextual assumption is that a speaker speaks only for herself.) 6. If the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis were true, how might the culture using a 'logical language' differ from yours? Is your answer (and those of others you talk with) colored by stereotypes of 'logical thinking' as dull or mechanical (or possibly as clear and incisive)? What do you see as the primary characteristics of a logical language? 7. If the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis were true, how might the culture using a language based on an expressive and elaborate set of emotional expressions differ from yours? Assume that expressions clearly indicate the speaker's emotional state and distinguish ideas from the speaker's attitudes toward those ideas. (Lojban is both logical and has such a set of emotional indicators.) 8. How can learning to recognize biases in language help you in learning other languages? In understanding the people of other languages? Avoiding Constraints on Thought nu rivbi le pensi rinju (/noo,REEV,bee leh,PEHN,see,REEN,zhoo/) Lojban seeks to avoid unnecessary constraints on thought. We've just explored some of those constraints, those imposed by cultural biases. How does Lojban avoid other constraints? The most important answer is that Lojban avoids assumptions that might limit how we use the language. As noted above, in English and other languages, there are grammatical concepts of gender and number. English statements usually imply something about the gender (or lack of gender) of whom or what you are talking about, and also how many people are involved. Lojban's grammar does not require either. Similarly, English requires that all statements reflect a time in the past, present, or future, or a combination of these. Lojban sentences can omit the specification of tense in sentences. It is hard for an English speaker to recognize that tense is unnecessary; we are so used to it. But speakers of languages with complicated declension systems do not easily see how one could make sense of a sentence without those declensions, while English speakers have no trouble doing so. You will see many examples of English assumptions that are not automatically made in Lojban as you progress through this book. One way of avoiding constraints on thought requires your direct attention as a Lojban speaker interacting with one or more listeners. This textbook will attempt to teach you to recognize that your listener is not you. He/she/it will naturally apply his/her/its own unique experiences to in- terpreting your statements. Thus the onus is on you, the speaker, to express your ideas in a form that will be understood by the listener. (Wondering about the 'it'? Suppose you are talking to a computer. In making the above statement, I did not make the 'usual' assumption that you are planning to speak Lojban only to people.) Lojban permits vague statements and even 'figures of speech'. Unless you are sure that your listener will interpret such a statement exactly as you intend it, you risk misunderstanding. You must not force your listener into trying to think as you do; it isn't always possible. If you do not know your listener well, as for example in writing for mass distribution, you should make few assumptions and be very specific. Why not require the listener to figure out what you meant? Simple. The listener does not know what you know; the purpose of communication is to transfer information. If you don't transfer all information needed to understand what you say, you might not be understood. In written expression, the listener may have no way of questioning you if your statements make no sense. Thus, when we read classics of English literature, we often miss nuances requiring knowledge of the writer's culture. The writer of course took his/her cultural environment for granted. Exercise 0-3 larnuntoi nopi'ecimoi (/lahr,NOON,toy NOH,pee,heh,SHEE,moy/) 1. The debate over abortion rights is an excellent example of ignoring others' cultural assumptions in the use of language. One side defines 'life' to include the period before birth; the other does not. Can you think of other words or phrases used in the abortion debate for which you need to know a specific definition in order to understand the proponent's position? 2. Can you think of examples from other controversies where you must know the speaker's cultural background and the cultural associations of the speaker's words to understanding the argument? 3. Advertising makes heavy use of the cultural associations of words, and advertisers often target a specific audience. Can you think of an advertisement that you found difficult to 'identify with' because the targeting used associations not familiar or relevant to you? 4. Often, advertisements make incomplete statements, leaving the listener or viewer to insert the implied information (often the listener does not notice this, but fills in the assumed information subconsciously). Can you think of an example of an advertisement where the advertiser uses vague information in this way? (Hint - most uses of the words "new" and "improved" beg the question of what the words "old" and "unimproved" might refer to.) 5. Examine the simple English sentence "Judy swims." Does this sentence imply that Judy is swimming now? How do you know? Does this sentence imply that Judy has swum in the past, or that she will swim in the future? Is it possible to say "[name] swims" about someone who has never swum and never will? Rephrase the original sentence so that it is clearer even in the absence of any clarifying context. 6. As a variation on the last sentence, examine "Sandy dog-paddles." Do your answers to 5. change for this sentence? Do your answers change if you find out that Sandy is a dog? How about if Sandy is a cat or a fish? Can you rephrase the sentence for someone who does not know what 'dog-paddles' means? 7. Now examine: "Peter works in Peoria." Does this sentence mean that Peter is at this moment working in Peoria? Could it be true if Peter worked in Peoria yesterday and will work there tomorrow, but is not working today? Is it still true if he is on a one-day business trip to Chicago? Does this sentence imply that Peter worked in Peoria last year? Might he have worked somewhere else last year? Would your answers to these questions change for the sentence "Peter works in Peoria now"? Rephrase one interpretation of each sentence ("Peter works in Peoria" and "Peter works in Peoria now") so it is clear in the absence of any clarifying context. 8. Say the sentence "Peter works in Peoria now." aloud in a bored tone of voice. Repeat the sentence as if you were answering the question "Where does Peter work?" Repeat the sentence as if you were answering the question "Do you know anyone who works in Peoria?" Repeat the sentence as a question (without rephrasing it), as if you wish to confirm the rumor that Peter is working in Peoria. Repeat the sentence in disbelief because you thought Peter was living in New York. Repeat the sentence in disbelief because you thought Peter was a ne'er-do well who can't hold a job. Listen to how your voice and tone changes in each of these versions. How would you convey these various expressions or attitudes if you were writing a book? If your book were intended for a foreigner who is learning English through reading books, how would you make sure she/he understands which expression implied which attitude? 9. Examine: "William ran out the door and hurdled the tricycle in the walkway." Does this imply that the sentence "William is a runner and a hurdler." is true? Given the latter sentence first, might you have thought of the first sentence as describing a situation where the second one is true. Construct a similar pair of sentences using the word 'build' and 'builder'. 10. Examine: "Lions come from Africa." Is this a true statement? Is it still true when you are reminded of the new cub born at the zoo yesterday? If lions come from Africa, where do they go to? When trying to speak Lojban, it is often a good idea to think about how your listener might misinterpret your statement without full knowledge of the context. Then - provide that context. Setting Your Lojban Goals nu ko cuxna le do terzu'e ra'a la lojban. (/noo,koh,SHOOKH,nah leh,doh,tehr,ZOO,heh rah,hah,lah,LOHZH,bahn./) If you already know enough about why Lojban is worth learning, and want to learn Lojban, you can start with Lesson 1 now (well, finish this section first). If you are studying as part of a group or a class, feel free to work ahead on your own. Learning a language is a complex effort; you will not hurt your group effort by studying ahead. You may even enrich the group through personal insights that you may gain in a first reading. Before you start learning Lojban, you should clarify your goals for studying and using the language. If you have an instructor, make your goals clear to the instructor. It is also useful to look over your cultural and language background and your experience in learning languages. Then, use this book's resources in ways suited to your specific needs. There are several reasons for studying a language. You may wish to visit a foreign country where people speak the language, or to host a native speaker of that language visiting you. You may wish to read literature in the language. You may wish to confer with other speakers of the language. You may simply wish to gain the perspective of another language and its inherent cultural viewpoint on the nature of human life and civilization. You are unlikely to visit Lojbanistan (except in your mind), or to host visitors from that realm. The other reasons listed above could still apply to learning Lojban. In addition, as the number of Lojban speakers grows, you might find knowing Lojban an excellent bridge to communicating with someone who does not know English. Lojban has a couple of additional reasons for study that do not apply to other languages. You may be interested in computer applications of Lojban. You may be interested in planning, conducting, or participating in, various linguistic research efforts that will use Lojban. You also may be learning Lojban as a stepping stone to other languages; researchers have shown that learning one foreign language makes learning others easier. Using easily-learned Lojban as your first foreign language could greatly accelerate your learning another language that will be more important to your life. Lojban may be especially valuable for learning languages that are far different from English, languages whose structures may not easily translate into English. These are just a few possibilities. What are your reasons? Exercise 0-4 larnuntoi nopi'evomoi (/lahr,NOON,toy NOH,pee,heh,VOH,moy/) 1. Are you studying Lojban just out of curiosity, but have not (yet) decided to try to master the language for any particular use? (If so, you probably want to concentrate less on memorizing vocabulary, and more on structures of the language, especially those emphasized in Lesson 1.) 2. Do you intend to read Lojban? Do you want to do so with or without a dictionary in hand? (Written Lojban will tend to have more complex grammar than spoken Lojban, and probably a larger vocabulary usage. You need to concentrate on recognizing Lojban words, disassembling complex words into their components; you must also have a broad command of the grammar. You will not have much need to recall a Lojban word for a concept without seeing that word in print. Pronunciation rules and listening practice probably aren't very important to you.) 3. Do you intend to speak Lojban with others? Does your knowledge need to be fluent, for comfortable conversation or serious communication, or do you just need to 'get by' speaking the language only occasionally? (Having a command of the vocabulary is more important in speaking the language. You need to both recognize and recall Lojban words quickly; the recognition should include some practice with spoken words in isolation and in the context of sentences. To be fluent in Lojban, you must either build a large vocabulary, or be quick and skillful at 'making up' words or paraphrases to get your point across. On the other hand, you will seldom use more complex or unusual features of the grammar. Concentrate on the grammar covered in the earlier lessons of the book.) 4. Do you wish to translate English or other languages into Lojban, especially with publication quality? (If so, you need to concentrate on the grammar, including the less common structures. You need to recall Lojban words for concepts easily, and to create new words and paraphrases easily. Your total vocabulary need not be large, especially if an English-Lojban dictionary is available; you need little emphasis on speaking and listening to the language.) 5. Do you want to write creatively or originally in Lojban? (You need the same skills as a translator, though concentrating on the more common grammar structures before worrying about rarer constructs. (You should have complete mastery of the basics before playing with unusual word orders and constructs.) For poetry, you also need a feel for how the language sounds. You need especial skill at recognizing when your expressions rely on non-Lojban cultural information, or on idiom derived from other languages.) 6. Do you plan to write in Lojban only minimally (primarily sentences, paragraphs, or maybe short letters)? (You need a good command of the basic vocabulary, and the basic structures of the languages, but do not need to master any particular feature.) 7. Do you plan to use Lojban for designing computer applications? (You need to understand the grammar thoroughly in a formal or technical sense that will not be emphasized in this book. The informal approaches here will provide a basis for such advanced study. You also need to concen- trate on learning patterns in the Lojban vocabulary far more than individual words. Topics to understand include the construction of new words and determination of their formal definition, analysis of meanings, and the interactions between words in complex expressions.) 8. Do you plan to teach Lojban? If so, to which of the above types of people? (Most likely, you need to master those skills that your students need. You also need a certain amount of fluency, as described in 3. above, in order to quickly invent a good example when someone is having trouble. If you are planning to teach children, you need to concentrate heavily on the most basic and common structures and vocabulary. On the other hand, the author and others taught the first Lojban classes with only a minimal, non-fluent, command of the vocabulary and grammar.) 9. Do you plan to use Lojban in linguistic research? (If so, you probably should learn a variety of grammatical forms, and minimize vocabulary unless your research will significantly require it.) 10. Now that you have focussed on your goals for using Lojban, consider the most important question: What do you expect to accomplish toward your goals before finishing this book? How much time will you spend in this pursuit, and with what intensity? No language textbook can teach everything about a language to you. Some textbooks are more effective than others for particular skills, or for people with particular backgrounds. How much you achieve in a course of study depends on how long the course is, and how intensely you study. Language study, in particular, requires much practice, preferably with others. Set realistic goals, so that you gain confidence at your successes, and not disappointed when progress seems slow. People do not learn languages overnight. You took years to learn English; if you practice a couple hours every day, you might be fluent in Lojban in several months. Most people, though, will skip days of practice entirely (while we might wish otherwise) or spend only a little time on those days when they do study. If your expectations are reasonable, this becomes less of a problem. Continue your learning efforts and you will eventually reach your goal. Reading this book and doing the exercises is not enough to learn Lojban. Not only must you study the vocabulary, you must use Lojban. If you are in a class or study group, try saying a few sentences every session. Don't worry about making mistakes; everyone else will too. In fact, it is almost obligatory that you push your knowledge of the language to the point where you make mistakes as often as possible. That is how you will learn. Many people believe that adults have particular difficulty learning new languages; that only young children can become fluent in a new language with ease. Actually, the only proven difficulty adults have in learning languages is speaking with a native accent. Otherwise, your greater understanding of the rules of even one language give you a strong advantage over children in learning other languages. On the other hand, children aren't afraid to make mistakes. Listen to any young child speaking her/his native language and you will hear mistakes in nearly every sentence. As children grow older and gain more experience in the language, they make fewer and fewer mistakes. To learn any language, including Lojban, you must lose your adult self-consciousness, and learn like a child. You'll learn much more quickly and will speak fluent and error-free Lojban within a few months. In learning Lojban, do not be afraid to make mistakes. You will learn from those mistakes, just as children do, and more quickly master Lojban. In addition, adults have more responsibilities than children, and find it more difficult to sustain long-term effort at learning. Adults also have higher expectations of themselves, and get discouraged more easily. A child does not expect total mastery of a language in a few months. After leaving formal school, most adults find it difficult to pursue even a single course of study for more than a few months. Recognize your limitations, but take pride in your progress. You will find yourself capable of expressing far more in Lojban in a very short time than you can in comparable effort in learning any other language. Using This Book nu pilno levi cukta (/noo,PEEL,noh leh,vee,SHUUK,tah/) The lessons in this book should be studied in order. The first lesson stands alone, presenting basic concepts that will reappear throughout the book. The remaining lessons, in Part II, go over these basic concepts in a bit more depth. This helps you understand the features that make Lojban unique before making extensive demands that test your understanding. After a semester of rigorous study or a year of lighter effort with this book, your skill in Lojban will probably be comparable to that after four years studing a typical natural language. The first lesson does not discuss pronunciation. Frankly, pronunciation is boring to most people; we want you to see the features that make Lojban interesting! We provide self-explanatory pronunciation guides for Lojban text in this lesson. Try to pronounce the words and sentences from the guides, but don't worry about errors. If you have an instructor, ask her/him to say the words and sentences correctly. In Part II, we discuss the rules for Lojban pronunciation, and explicit guides are less frequent. Since Lojban spelling is completely phonetic (it matches the pronunciation exactly), you shouldn't need pronunciation guides after the first few lessons. The Logical Language Group, Inc. sells a cassette tape covering most of the material covered in the pronunciation guides, and some longer dialogues and readings. See Lesson 2 on pronunciation for more on how to use this tape. Learning a language is demanding. While you can express meaningful Lojban sentences practically from the start, you will need to learn 2000 words or more to use the language in conversation. This probably seems like a lot right now, unless you stop to realize that native English speakers know 20,000 to 100,000 English words, or more. Or, if you are reading and understanding this book using English as a second language, you probably have an English vocabulary in excess of 5000 words. A thousand words are still a lot to learn, though, and you should start immediately. Lessons 2 and 3 discuss Lojban word forms and pronunciation. The remainder of Part II will not require an extensive vocabulary knowledge. (You could even read Part II through without learning any of the vocabulary, though we don't recommend this unless you are just trying to satisfy your curiosity about the language). Speak Lojban to others you are studying with; again, don't worry about making mistakes. In fact, encourage others to point out mistakes that cause confusion. (When you get more skilled in the language, you will want others to watch for vagueness, or reliance on English figures of speech that might not mean the same to a non-English native. This should not be your primary concern at the beginning.) If you are studying on your own, practice with a tape and write sentences. Eventually work up to longer writings. When you have enough vocabulary to write a paragraph on a simple subject, contact The Logical Language Group. The group will put you in touch with others at your same level of skill and you can exchange paragraphs and eventually letters. (Until both you and the recipient can skillfully read and write Lojban, always include a translation showing what you intended to say, preferably on a separate sheet.) Feel free to contact The Logical Language Group with questions on this textbook, suggestions for improvement, etc. Remember, though, Parts I and II do not cover all the details of the language. Even after studying them, there will be several things you won't yet know how to say. We've written this book for readers who are unskilled in logic and linguistics, and who have not studied any foreign language in depth. If you have background in any of these, some material may seem repetitive. Please forgive us. In the interests of reaching as many people as possible, this book avoids the specialized terminology of linguistics and language education. (This book will use the word jargon, with no pejorative intent, for such terminology). Where a jargon term is necessary, we explain the basic concept behind the term, and then we present a Lojban word to stand for the concept. The reason for this is simple - you are trying to learn Lojban, not linguistics or logic. Among the earliest subjects you will want to talk about will be the language you are using and its structures. It is thus better to associate important concepts with their Lojban words from the start, and bypass learning the English jargon. For those with a technical background, when there is a clear linguistic term for a concept, we print the word in italics upon first use of the Lojban word that represents it. A glossary in the back of this book defines each Lojban and English technical term. Enough preliminaries. It's time to LEARN AND USE LOJBAN! Lesson 1 pamoi seltadni (/PAH,moy sehl,TAHD,nee/) The Basic Structure of Lojban stura jicmu la lojban. (/STOO,rah,ZHEESH,moo lah,LOHZH,bahn./) In this lesson, you will learn the basic concepts underlying Lojban grammar. The most important Lojban structures will be presented briefly, using a limited vocabulary. Your goal should be to understand each structure and concept as it is presented, without making any particular effort to memorize any of the vocabulary or structures. 1.1 Relationship Sentences bridi (/BREE,dee/) Lojban has exactly one basic sentence form. There are complications and elaborations that give Lojban its expressive power, but the single form remains fundamental. To learn Lojban you must learn just this one form - learn it thoroughly and be able to recognize it in a variety of guises. When you can do so, you will be able to read and understand even the most complex Lojban sentence. Lojban's basic structure is based on ideas, and on relationships among those ideas. Let us first look at some English sentences to see what this means. Alice looks at Jane. (1.1-1) Alice is shorter than Jane. (1.1-2) Alice is the sister of Jane. (1.1-3) These three sentences have three different grammatical structures in English. In Lojban, all of these are expressed using a single grammatical structure.1 These sentences talk about, and relate, two separate 'ideas'. The ideas are expressed (or identified) through the use of names: "Alice" and "Jane". Presumably the speaker and the listener know who both Alice and Jane are, otherwise there will be no communication. The first sentence (1.1-1) relates the two ideas by the English verb "looks". When you learn the English word "looks", you learn that it involves a 'looker', and something 'looked at'. You recognize which idea fills which role by the order, and by the presence of the word "at". If you omit the word 'at', the result makes no sense: *Alice looks Jane. (1.1-1a)2 If you change the word order, the result also makes no sense: *Alice looks Jane at. (1.1-1b) Similarly, the second sentence (1.1-2) relates the two people, using the English adjective "shorter". "Shorter" also implies a relationship between two ideas. Here, too, the order of the ideas is important to the meaning: Alice is shorter than Jane. (1.1-2) is clearly different from: Jane is shorter than Alice. (1.1-2a) In these sentences, the little words "is" and "than" remind you which idea plays which role in the sentence. In (1.1-2a), "is" is placed after the 'first' idea (Jane) to join it to "shorter"; "than" identifies the 'second' idea (Alice), and ties it to the sentence. In the third sentence (1.1-3), an English noun - "sister" - indicates the relation. Again, little words ("of", "is", and the") are used to keep the order straight. You cannot omit these words. You can see this in: *Alice sister Jane. (1.1-3a) which of course is not grammatical. In all of the above sentences, information is conveyed through the meaning of the relation words "looks", "shorter", and "sister", as well as through the grammar of the little words that tie the sentence together. In general, the two kinds of information are not interchangeable. Little words like "at" in (1.1-1) have no particular 'meaning' in the same sense as the longer 'relation words'. They merely tie the ideas into their particular roles in the sentence. (A dictionary will try to define each of these words; you will find several definitions for each, all rather vague; only by knowing the relation word will you have any idea what these little words mean in a given context. Thus it is more correct to say that the little words 'bring out' hidden meaning contained within the 'content' words.) Little words like these which convey little or no meaning, but which serve to show grammatical roles, are called cmavo (/SHMAH,vo/) in Lojban (structure words or function words in English). cmavo are the structure or function words used to show grammatical structure, but which have little meaning in themselves. Sentences do not need to relate exactly two ideas. In each of the examples above, the second 'idea' and its associated cmavo could have been omitted; the shorter sentence would still make sense: Alice looks. (1.1-4) Alice is shorter. (1.1-5) Alice is the sister. (1.1-6) You can add other ideas into the sentence, using additional cmavo to tie these extra ideas into the relationship: Alice looks at Jane through a telescope. (1.1-7) Alice is shorter than Jane by three inches. (1.1-8) Notice that 'through' is a cmavo (i.e. a 'little word'), even though it is longer than the relation word "looks". In Lojban, all cmavo are 3 or fewer letters long. When more than two ideas are related in English, a sentence can get pretty confusing. The sentence: Fred gives the book to Steve. (1.1-9) can be rearranged, leaving out the cmavo 'to': Fred gives Steve the book. (1.1-10) Non-natives learning English don't realize this, and are likely to make the sentence: *Fred gives to Steve the book. (1.1-10a) which sounds strange to a native speaker. Finally, sentences can express relationships among more complicated ideas. These more complicated ideas are generally tied together with cmavo: George and Mary played tennis with Betty and Sam. (1.1-11) Now you try and identify some English sentence structures in the following exercise. _____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-1 larnuntoi papi'epamoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,PAH,moy/) For each of the following English sentences, identify the relation word, the ideas being related, and the cmavo (if any) which serve to indicate what role each of the ideas plays in the relationship. For example, in: (Example) I sit on the chair. "I" and "the chair" are two ideas related by the relation "sit". "On" is a cmavo that indicates which of the two ideas is in the role of being the thing which is sat upon. 1. John hits Mary in the knee. 2. Sue is smarter than Fred. 3. War and Peace is a book about Russia. Now for a more complex sentence: 4. You will go home from class via Main Street in George's car. Next, try a sentence with complex ideas and relationship expressions: 5. George and Martha quietly talk about their new house. Now try a few sentences that are similar in meaning. These examples show how English uses several different kinds of sentence structure to convey the same basic relationship. 6. I study Lojban. 7. I am a student of Lojban. 8. Your arms cradle the baby. 9. Your arms are cradling the baby. 10. Your arms are a cradle for the baby. As a thought exercise, play with some of these sentences, seeing what happens to the relationship if you move the cmavo around, or if you exchange the positions of the ideas within the sentence. For example, with exercise sentence 1., you can examine several variations. Which of the following are grammatical in English? Which mean the same as the original sentence? Are the commas in some of the samples important to understanding the meaning? 1. John hits Mary in the knee. Mary hits John in the knee. John hits the knee in Mary. The knee hits Mary in John. In the knee, John hits Mary. In the knee, hits John, Mary. John, in the knee, hits Mary. John hits, in the knee, Mary. Hits John Mary in the knee. Try variations of other sentences. Notice that each English relation word has its own special rules that determine what rearrangements are permitted, and how the rearrangements change the meaning. Non-native English speakers must learn these rules explicitly as part of learning the language. English speakers tend to think of English as being 'easy to learn' because it avoids complex inflections on relation words that other languages require. On the other hand, languages with inflections allow more freedom in ordering the presentation of ideas, with fewer variations from word to word. Like English, Lojban does not add inflections that other languages require. Indeed, Lojban avoids even the few that English has retained3. ____________________________________________________________________________ Lojban's sentence structure is called a predication by logicians; in Lojban, it is called a bridi. Any complete sentence in Lojban is a bridi (/BREE,dee/). As you will see, more complex Lojban sentences may contain several bridi; for now only the basic form is discussed. Lojban discourse is made up of ideas. To say something in Lojban, you express one or more of these ideas, and then relate them to each other and to the universe. A Lojban bridi expresses this relationship. 1.2 Lojban Relation Words lojbo brivla (/LOHZH,bo,BREEV,lah/) You've seen that relationships can be identified in English sentences. However, expressing relationships is NOT the underlying concept of English grammar. In fact, the different parts of English speech like nouns, verbs, and adjectives require different structures. If you did the thought exercises, you found that certain ideas cannot be grammatically expressed in certain roles. 'Nonsense', where familiar ideas are related in unfamiliar ways, is frequently ungrammatical. Lojban is simpler. In Lojban, there are no nouns, verbs, or adjectives. A relation is conveyed by a single grammatical unit. This unit is called a selbri (/SEL,bree/ - in formal logic, a selbri is called a predicate4). A selbri expresses the relation among the ideas in a bridi sentence. A Lojban bridi expresses a relationship among several ideas. All Lojban sentences consist of bridi. Later, you will explore more complex selbri; for now, though, consider only selbri that consist of a single word. Single words that can express the relationship of a bridi are called brivla (/BREEV,lah/). Most of the vocabulary you need for expressing Lojban sentences are brivla, since Lojban sentences must contain a selbri. Thus, the more brivla that you know, the better you can speak and write Lojban. A selbri is a word or group of words that expresses the relation in a Lojban bridi. Every Lojban bridi has a selbri. The following are Lojban brivla. The idea-roles that they relate are listed as well: birka /BEER,kah/ expresses a relation between an arm, and the body that the arm is attached to. (2 ideas) cukta /SHOOK,tah/ expresses a relation between a book, the author of the book, the subject of the book, and the audience for whom the book is intended. (4 ideas) darxi /DAR,khee/ expresses a relation between a hitter, a thing hit, an instrument of hitting, and a location where contact is made. (4 ideas) tavla /TAHV,lah/ expresses a relation between a talker, a person talked to, a subject of discourse, and the language in which talking takes place. (4 ideas) zutse /ZOOT,seh/ expresses a relation between a sitter and the thing sat upon. (2 ideas) The words "bridi", "cmavo", "selbri", and "brivla" are also brivla. Since you won't be using them in Lojban sentences for a while, they are not defined here. If you are curious, you can look in the brivla word list in Appendix ***. Indeed, you should get in the habit of looking in the Appendix to discover new Lojban brivla, and the idea-roles that are a part of each bridi sentence made with those brivla. Most brivla relate 2 or 3 idea-roles to each other. Sometimes, however, a thought involves only one idea-role; the selbri expresses a relation that idea-role fills within the universe. The concept of a chair is such a single idea. You can say a lot of things about a chair, but its 'chairness' is a single idea. Many Lojban brivla express such one-idea relations. Most correspond to English nouns like "chair", and to adjectives like the colors "red" and "blue". The simplest selbri is a single word. A single word that can serve as a selbri is called a brivla. Thus, a brivla is a single word that expresses the relation in a bridi. Following are some examples of Lojban brivla specifying a single idea: bikla /BEEK,lah/ expresses that the single idea is a whip, or is something that whips (thus representing both the noun and verb senses of English "whip". blanu /BLAH,noo/ expresses that the single idea exhibits the color blue. senci /SEHN,shee/ expresses that the single idea sneezes (is a sneezer). "senci" thus conveys the idea of the English verb "to sneeze". stizu /STEE,zoo/ expresses that the single idea is a seat or chair. _____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-2 larnuntoi papi'eremoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,REH,moy/) Using Appendix ***, look up the following brivla. For each, indicate how many ideas are being related, and give a brief definition of each role, as in the examples above. 1. cmalu /SHMAH,loo/ 2. cpana /SHPAH,nah/ 3. dunda /DOON,dah/ 4. jubme /ZHOOB,meh/ 5. plise /PLEE,seh/ 6. prenu /PREH,noo/ 7. sanli /SAHN,lee/ 8. stedu /STEH,doo/ 9. xunre /KHOON,reh/ And one longer exercise: 10. klama /KLAH,mah/ In the Appendix, individual idea-roles are assigned numbers (such as x1, x2, and x3). In Lojban, as in English, the order that you express the ideas clarifies what role each idea plays in the sentence. Don't worry about memorizing the roles associated with each brivla; you'll learn them naturally as you study the words and use them in sentences. If you haven't done so already, you may wish to make a quick reference list of the brivla that were presented in Section 1-2, and those you looked up in the exercise for that section. A complete list of the words presented in this lesson will be found at the end of the lesson, but it is convenient to have the list at hand when studying examples and doing exercises. _____________________________________________________________________________ 1.3 Relationship Ideas sumti (/SOOM,tee/) sumti are the ideas that fill the roles in a bridi. A bridi relationship consists of a selbri relation and one or more sumti that are related. In Lojban, there is a word for the ideas that are tied together in a bridi relationship expression. They are called sumti (/SOOM,tee/ - the term used in formal logic is argument). Thus a Lojban bridi consists of a selbri which relates several sumti. In order to make sentences in Lojban, you need to know a few words and phrases that can be used as sumti. First are words that work like pronouns in English; the term "sumti cmavo" (which means argument structure-word) will be used to discuss these: mi /mee/ identifies the speaker (and sometimes others that she/he is speaking for) as a sumti do /doh/ identifies the person(s) being spoken to as a sumti mi'o /mee,hoh/ identifies the combination of the speaker and the person(s) being spoken to as a sumti. As such, it represents one meaning of English "we" or "us"; the other meanings are represented in Lojban by different sumti cmavo which are explained in later lessons. ko'a /ko,hah/ identifies some specific person or persons, or some thing or things, as a sumti. "ko'a" thus corresponds to English "he", "she", "it", and "they". ko'e /ko,heh/ is identical to "ko'a", but is available to identify a different sumti when "ko'a" is already in use. ti /tee/ identifies this thing 'here' that the speaker is pointing to (or otherwise specifically indicating) as a sumti. "ti" can be used in several places in the same sentence; you can indicate something different each time you use it in a sentence. ta /tah/ identifies that thing 'there' (usually further away from "mi" than "ti") that the speaker is pointing to (or otherwise specifically indicating) as a sumti. Like "ti", "ta" can be used several times in the same sentence, indicating something different each time. You can also use "ti" and "ta" together to keep the relative distance clear. tu /too/ identifies that thing 'yonder' (usually further away from both "mi" and "do" than both are from "ta") that the speaker is pointing to (or otherwise specifically indicating) as a sumti. Like "ti" and "ta", "tu" can be used in several places in the same sentence. Each of the above may be either singular or plural. Lojban words do not implicitly indicate whether the referent is one person or thing, or more than one. Often the context will make it clear. There are explicit ways to add information about how many are being referred to. Lojban sumti do not implicitly indicate whether they refer to one person/thing, or more than one. You can express the number explicitly if it is important. Lojban names end in a consonant, and must not contain the words "doi", "la", or "lai" within them. "la" turns a name into a sumti. Normally "ti", "ta", and "tu" cannot easily be used in written Lojban, since the reader has no idea what is being pointed at. Thus, when this book uses these words in examples, imagine the writer is pointing to something that you can see around you. _____________________________ A second type of sumti is formed by taking a name, and marking it with the cmavo "la". In Lojban, names are spelled so that they are pronounced as close as possible to the way that the owner of the name wants. Since Lojban spelling is entirely phonetic, this is easy, although some names end up looking quite different from their equivalents in other languages. Some names from other languages cannot be pronounced exactly like they are in the original language, either because Lojban does not have the exact same sounds as the other language, or because Lojban rules require a minor change in the form of the name. There are three such rules about names which are important - if you know these rules you can recognize a Lojban name, because NO OTHER Lojban word has the same form: - they must end in a consonant, even if you have to add one or drop off a final vowel; - they cannot contain the sounds of the words "doi", "la", or "lai" within them, unless that sound is preceded by a consonant; - names are pronounced with a pause following the final letter; if the name starts with a vowel, at least a short pause must also be added between the "la" and the name. Some examples of names, with "la" added to make the name into a sumti: la djan.5 /lah,jahn./ the person/thing named 'John' la fred. /lah,frehd./ the person/thing named 'Fred' la suzn. /lah,SOO,znn./ the person/thing named 'Susan' la .alis. /lah .AH,lees./ the person/thing named 'Alice' la lojban. /lah,LOHZH,bahn./ the person/thing named 'Lojban' la .iunaitydsteits. /lah .yoo,NAI,tuhd,steyts./ the person/thing named 'United States' la DO'itclant. /lah,DOH,heech,lahnt./ the person/thing named 'Deutschland' (Germany) la uest. vrdjinias. /lah,wehst. vrr,JEEN,yahs./ the person/thing named 'West Virginia' Names are personal. The Lojban philosophy is to use the name preferred by the person or people most closely associated with the name. When using a name from another language, try to match the pronunciation of that name by a speaker of that language. Hence the name for "Germany" above is not "la djrmynis." (/lah,JRR,muh,nees./ The words "le" and "ku" surrounding a selbri, turn it into a description sumti, or selgadri sumti. The two cmavo clearly separate the sumti from other parts of the sentence. The final type of sumti covered in this section is formed by surrounding a selbri with two words. Preceding the selbri is the word "le", and following the selbri is the word "ku". This type of sumti is called a description, because the selbri describes a property of the idea being expressed. A Lojban phrase for a description sumti is selgadri sumti (/sehl,GAH,dree,SOOM,tee/). You can turn any of the brivla from section 1.2 into a description: le zutse ku /leh,ZOOT,seh,koo/ the thing described as sitting; the sitter le darxi ku /leh,DAR,khee,koo/ the thing described as hitting; the hitter le tavla ku /leh,TAHV,lah,koo/ the thing described as talking; the talker le cukta ku /leh,SHOOK,tah,koo/ the thing described as a book; the book le birka ku /leh,BEER,kah,koo/ the thing described as an arm; the arm le stizu ku /leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ the thing described as a chair; the chair le blanu ku /leh,BLAH,noo,koo/ the thing described as blue; the blue object le senci ku /leh,SEHN,shee,koo/ the thing described as sneezing; the sneezer le bikla ku /leh,BEEK,lah,koo/ the thing described as whipping; the whip Comparing these examples with the descriptions of the sumti roles in 1.2 (or the Appendix) you can see that a description is interpreted by treating the sumti as if it were the first (x1) sumti of the brivla. ____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-3 larnuntoi papi'ecimoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,SHEE,moy/) Part 1 Imagine the following situation: Mary and Pete are in a room. Mary is sitting on the floor. Pete is sitting on a green chair. There is a blue table in the room, with a red apple on it. Mary is talking with Pete, and pointing at the table. Pete answers, pointing at the white door. 1. If Mary uses the word "mi" in a bridi, who or what idea is she trying to specify? 2. If Mary uses the word "do" in a bridi, who or what idea is she trying to specify? 3. If Pete uses the word "mi" in a bridi, who or what idea is he trying to specify? 4. If Pete uses the word "do" in a bridi, who or what idea is he trying to specify? 5. If Mary uses the word "ti" in a bridi, what idea is she trying to specify? 6. If Mary uses the phrase "le stizu ku" in a bridi, who or what idea is she trying to specify? 7. If Mary uses the phrase "le blanu ku" in a bridi, who or what idea is she trying to specify? 8. If Pete uses the phrase "le plise ku" in a bridi, who or what idea is he trying to specify? 9. If Pete answers using the word "ta" in a bridi, who or what idea is he trying to specify? 10. All of the Lojban words and phrases used in this exercise are called what? Part 2 The following are Lojbanized names, marked with the cmavo "la" to allow them to represent ideas in bridi. Can you identify the idea or person that each name represents? Hint - use the pronunciation guides. (Note - the last 10 are foreign names, and may be less recognizable.) 1. la nuIORK. /lah,nu,YOHRK./ 2. la djiordj. buc. /lah,jyohrj. boosh./ 3. la CRlok. xolmz. /lah,SHRR,lohk. khohlmz./ 4. la meris. tailr. mor. /lah,MEH,rees. TAI,lrr. mohr./ 5. la .uinstn. TCRtcl. /lah .WIN,stnn. CHRR,chll./ 6. la .eibry'em. linkyn. /lah .EI,bruh,hehm. LEEN,kuhn./ 7. la ritcrd. niksn. /lah,REE,chrrd. NEEK,snn./ 8. la duait. .aiznhau,r. /lah,dwait. .AI,znn,hau,rr./ 9. la .adolf. xitlr. /lah .AH,dohlf. KHEET,lrr./ 10. la maRIS. .antuaNET. /lah,mah,REES. .ahn,twah,NEHT./ 11. la carl. deGOL. /lah,shahrl. deh,GOHL./ 12. la mixaIL. garbaTCOF. /lah,mee,khah,EEL. gahr,bah,CHOHF./ 13. la lex. va'uensas. /lah,lekh. vah,HWEN,sahs./ 14. la MExikos. /lah,MEH,khee,kohs./ 15. la .astral,ias. /lah .ahs,TRAHL,yahs./ 16. la nedrlant. /lah,NEH,drr,lahnt./ 17. la .io'ANys. bramyz. /lah .yoh,HAHN,uhs. BRAHM,uhz./ 18. la maudzydyn. /lah,MAUD,zuh,duhn./ Part 3 Using your answers from Exercise 1-2, what ideas do the following represent? Examples: le stedu ku (/leh,STEH,doo,koo/) le sanli ku (/leh,SAHN,lee,koo/) the thing described as a head the thing described as standing 1. le prenu ku (/leh,PREH,noo,koo/) 2. le xunre ku (/leh,KHOON,reh,koo/) 3. le cmalu ku (/leh,SHMAH,loo,koo/) 4. le dunda ku (/leh,DOON,dah,koo/) 5. le jubme ku (/leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo/) 6. le klama ku (/leh,KLAH,mah,koo/) Express the following ideas as Lojban sumti: 7. the thing described as an apple 8. the thing described as lying (upon something) _____________________________________________________________________________ 1.4 Relationship Expressions in Lojban bridi bau la lojban. (/BREE,dee bau,lah,LOHZH,bahn./) Now that you know the pieces that make up a Lojban bridi sentence, you can express dozens of simple sentences in Lojban. Your only limitations are vocabulary and things to say. First some examples with only one sumti. In most examples, we will underline each of the sumti, and double underline the selbri to make the grammar clear: ti cu stizu (1.4-1) /tee shoo,STEE,zoo/ This-here-thing is-a-chair. (This is a chair.) ta cu blanu (1.4-2) /tah shoo,BLAH,noo/ That-there-thing is-blue. (That is blue.) do cu prenu (1.4-3) /doh shoo,PREH,noo/ You are-a-person. le plise ku cu xunre (1.4-4) /leh,PLEE,se,koo shoo,KHOON,reh/ The-thing-described-as an-apple is-red. (The apple is red.) le birka ku cu bikla (1.4-5) /leh,BEER,kah,koo shoo,BEEK,lah/ The-thing-described-as an-arm whips/is-a-whip. (The arm whips.) The first sumti comes before the selbri. The cmavo "cu" (/shoo/) is inserted between a preceding sumti and the selbri to make it easy to recognize the selbri. It has no meaning at all other than as a separator. It makes the language unambiguous, and hence easy to understand. "cu" is a meaning-free cmavo which separates preceding sumti from the selbri, making it easier to recognize the selbri. A selbri can be translated into English as a noun or a verb or an adjective as appropriate. The three English parts of speech are expressed identically in Lojban. Now, look at some bridi with two sumti: do cu zutse le stizu ku (1.4-6) /doh shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ You sit/are-a-sitter on the-thing-described-as a-chair. (You sit on the chair.) ko'a cu sanli le jubme ku (1.4-7) /ko,hah shoo,SAHN,lee leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo/ He/she/it stands/is-a-stander on the-thing-described-as a-table. (It stands on the table.) le plise ku cu cpana le jubme ku (1.4-8) /leh,PLEE,seh,koo shoo,SHPAH,nah leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo/ The-thing-described-as an-apple is-upon the-thing-described-as a-table. (The apple is on the table.) ti cu birka mi (1.4-9) /tee shoo,BEER,kah mee/ This is-an-arm of me. (This is my arm.) Notice that the second sumti is placed after the selbri. This is the normal place for the second sumti for several reasons. One obvious one is that it makes the sentences seem natural to English speakers like you. However, in Lojban, unlike in English, you can put the second sumti before the selbri just like the first one. Thus the following four sentences mean identically the same thing as the last four: do le stizu ku cu zutse (1.4-6a) /doh leh,STEE,zoo,koo shoo,ZOOT,seh/ ko'a le jubme ku cu sanli (1.4-7a) /ko,hah leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo shoo,SAHN,lee/ le plise ku le jubme ku cu cpana (1.4-8a) /leh,PLEE,seh,koo leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo shoo,SHPAH,nah/ ti mi cu birka (1.4-9a) /tee mee shoo,BEER,kah/ Why would you want to express a sentence in this order? For one reason, in some languages other than English, the verb goes at the end of the sentence. Thus, for speakers of such languages, the latter order would be the 'natural' order of speech for sentences of this type - they would find it easier to first learn Lojban speaking in this order. You might also change order for emphasis. In normal speech, words which are at the beginning and end of a sentence tend to stand out more to a listener, and are thus emphasized. With the selbri at the end of the sentence, it becomes relatively more emphasized than the second sumti. No extra cmavo or commas are used when the sentence is rearranged. As long as the first sumti is at the beginning of the sentence and all of the sumti appear in exact order (whether before or after the selbri), no extra cmavo are required. In 'standard' sentence order, the first sumti appears before the selbri, and all of the remaining sumti appear after the selbri in order. This 'standard order' can be varied. Later, you will see ways to use extra cmavo to put all of the sumti after the selbri, as well as to mix up the order of the sumti. Now for some sentences in 'standard' sentence order, but having more than two sumti: mi cu dunda le bikla ku la fred. (1.4-10) /mee,shoo,DOON,dah leh,BEEK,lah,koo lah,frehd./ I give/am-a-giver-of the-thing-described-as a-whip to the-one-named-Fred. I give the whip to Fred. We will abbreviate the translation of "le" ("the-thing-described-as ...") as simply "the" to save space. As you will see later, though, this is only one of several equivalents for English "the". Remember to use the longer definition to truly understand the meaning of a Lojban sentence using "le". la .alis. cu klama le jubme ku le stizu ku ti ta (1.4-11) /lah. AH,lees. shoo,KLAH,mah leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo leh,STEE,zoo,koo tee tah/ Alice goes/is-a-go-er to the-table from the-chair via (this-)here by-mode-of-transport that-there. la djan. cu tavla le prenu ku la CRlok. xolmz. la lojban. (1.4-12) /lah,jahn. shoo,TAHV,lah leh,PREH,noo,koo lah,SHR,lohk. kholmz. lah,LOHZH,bahn./ John talks/is-a-talker to the-person about Sherlock-Holmes in Lojban. do cu darxi la suzn. le birka ku le cukta ku (1.4-13) /doh shoo,DAHR,khee lah,SOO,zn. leh,BEER,kah,koo leh,SHOOK,tah,koo/ You hit/are-a-hitter-of Susan in the-arm with the-book. These bridi could also be written in non-standard orders. For example, the following versions of the last example all mean the same as the original: do la suzn. cu darxi le birka ku le cukta ku (1.4-13a) /doh lah,SOO,zn. shoo,DAHR,khee leh,BEER,kah,koo leh,SHOOK,tah,koo/ do la suzn. le birka ku cu darxi le cukta ku (1.4-13b) /doh lah,SOO,zn. leh,BEER,kah,koo shoo,DAHR,khee leh,SHOOK,tah,koo/ do la suzn. le birka ku le cukta ku cu darxi (1.4-13c) /doh lah,SOO,zn. leh,BEER,kah,koo leh,SHOOK,tah,koo shoo,DAHR,khee/ For now, assume that there must always be at least one sumti (and "cu" as a separator) prior to the selbri. _____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-4 larnuntoi papi'evomoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,VOH,moy/) Part 1 Translate the following into English: Example: le xunre ku cu plise /leh,KHOON,reh,koo shoo,PLEE,seh/ The red thing is an apple. 1. la. fred. cu zutse le jubme ku /lah,FREHD. shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo/ 2. mi cu dunda ti la .alis. /mee shoo,DOON,dah,tee lah .AH,lees./ 3. le sanli ku cu darxi le zutse ku le stedu ku le plise ku /leh,SAHN,lee,koo shoo,DAHR,khee leh,ZOOT,seh,koo leh,STEH,doo,koo leh,PLEE,seh,koo/ Part 2 Now it's your turn to use Lojban. First, let's add five new brivla to your vocabulary. Using Appendix ***, look up each brivla, and give a brief definition of each role, as Section 1-2. 1. botpi /BOHT,pee/ 2. karce /KAHR,sheh/ 3. tanxe /TAHN,kheh/ 4. tuple /TOOP,leh/ 5. zarci /ZAHR,shee/ Now, express the following English sentences in Lojban, using standard sentence order. Mark the selbri and sumti of each sentence as in our example: Example: The red thing is a market. le xunre ku cu zarci /leh,KHOON,reh,koo shoo,ZAHR,shee/ 6. You are a person. 7. I stand on the apple. 8. The talker is blue. 9. That goes to the market from the blue thing via the box by (mode of transport) the car. Express the following English sentences in Lojban, using any non-standard sentence order: 10. You give this to Fred. 11. The box talks to the apple about the bottle in Lojban. ____________________________________________________________________________ 1.5 Place Structures and Ellipsis terbri gi'e sumti nalnunsku (/TEHR,bree,gee,heh SOOM,tee,nahl,NOON,skoo/) The relation expressed by the selbri "klama" involves five sumti idea-roles. Briefly, these are the one-who-goes, the origin, the destination, the route, and the mode of transport. All of these are implicitly a part of "going"; you cannot "go" anywhere without, for example, a mode of transporting yourself there. An English speaker learns that the meaning of "goes" may involve all of these idea-roles (and realizes that they are all involved when she/he thinks about it, as you now are doing). An English speaker also learns that, for a sentence based on the word "goes", that a phrase marked with "to" or "into" is a destination, one marked with "from" or "out of" is an origin, one marked with "in" or "using" is a mode of transport, and one marked by "via" or "by way of" is a route. Each of these phrases (they are called prepositional phrases in English) marked with a tag word is similar to a Lojban sumti, though not identical in all aspects. Since each of the tag words (prepositions) has many different meanings when associated with other words besides "goes", an English speaker has to learn which tag words are permitted to be associated with each verb (you can't, for example, use a phrase marked by "of" in a sentence with "goes"), and what they mean in that association. An English speaker also learns the preferred order for expressing these phrases; variations in the order are allowed, but may sound awkward: "John goes via the highway in his car to the store from the office." (1.5-1) as compared to: "John goes from the office to the store via the highway in his car." (1.5-2) With Lojban, you learn the 'place structures' for each gismu, and their normal order, but special} tags are NOT necessary for each sumti. You have seen how to do rearrangements of sumti around a selbri without tags. You will see later how to express sumti in absolutely any order you choose with just a couple of cmavo to keep the sumti associated with their proper idea-role in the place structure. Hint - Memorizing place structures is not important when you are first learning Lojban. When you were very young, you did not memorize the complete set of phrases that could be attached to "goes" when you first learned that word, either. When you need to know a place structure, use your knowledge of English to determine the Lojban idea-roles. Make an intelligent guess as to the order, usually identical to the order you would express the same idea-roles in a corresponding English sentence. The concept of "going", involving five idea-roles, is the same regardless of which language you use. Yet, we have no trouble understanding an English speaker who says "John goes to the store". The speaker did not identify the origin, the route, nor the mode of transportation, even though John's "going" certainly required each of these. Meaningful communication took place when the speaker expressed the English sentence, even though the information was not complete. It is necessary to be able to express such incomplete relations for several possible reasons, including: a. the speaker may not know the route, mode of transport, etc.; b. the speaker may wish to conceal some or all of this information; c. the speaker may know that some or all of the information is known or obvious to the listener from the context; d. the information may simply be irrelevant to the discussion. In English, the sentence "John goes to the store." was complete and grammatical even though information was omitted. Furthermore "John goes to the store in his car." is similarly a complete and grammatical sentence. Implicitly, when you learn the word "goes", you learn that while "going" involves all five pieces of information, you can leave some of that information out. Similarly, in Lojban, you can leave information out that is implicitly part of a bridi relationship and still have a grammatical sentence. Because Lojban words are defined with specific place structures, speakers and listeners both know that there are specific idea-roles implicit in the bridi, even if values for those idea-roles are not expressed. The technical term for such omitted information that is implicitly part of the relationship is ellipsis (this is also the English word for the three dots "..." that explicitly mark ellipsis in print, called ellipsis marks). In Lojban, we can use the phrase "sumti nalnunsku" (/SOOM,tee,nahl,NOON,skoo/), which means "sumti non-expression". sumti nalnunsku (sumti nonexpression) is the Lojban phrase equivalent of ellipsis, the omission in an expressed bridi of information which is implicitly part of the relationship. English sentences have the equivalent of Lojban place structures, but they are irregular, and marked by prepositions that change meaning in each sentence. sumti nalnunsku is easily expressed in Lojban, with several grammatical techniques available depending on which sumti are nalnunsku. We'll demonstrate some of these now, and some later in the lesson. The easiest method of sumti nalnunsku is to replace an explicit value for the sumti by a place- holder. There are two place-holder sumti (sumti cmavo) values provided in Lojban: zo'e /zoh,heh/ identifies the sumti as being filled by some unspecified value, which is elliptically omitted; the speaker is explicitly indicating that the sumti value is not being defined. The actual value is plausible, but not necessarily a particular typical value for the position. zu'i /zoo,hee/ identifies the sumti as being filled by the typical value for this idea-role that particularly fits the context, but which is elliptically omitted. Let's look at some examples: la djan. cu klama le zarci ku zo'e zo'e zo'e (1.5-3) /lah,jahn. shoo,KLAH,mah leh,ZAHR,shee,koo zoh,heh,zoh,heh,zoh,heh/ John goes to the market, from somewhere unspecified, via some unspecified route, using some unspecified mode of transportation. la djan. cu klama le zarci ku ti zu'i zu'i (1.5-4) /lah,jahn. shoo,KLAH,mah leh,ZAHR,shee,koo tee zoo,hee,zoo,hee/ John goes to the market, from somewhere unspecified, v ia the usual route, using the usual means. To make the second example realistic, we specified both origin and destination. Given this knowledge, and the listener knowing something about John's habits, the speaker can reasonably assume that the listener can determine the typical route and means of transport to be used, if the listener needs or wants to know. The speaker may not even know these typical values, but in any case does not need to specify them. In the first example, however, the speaker has only said that John is the "go-er" and "the market" is the destination. No inference can necessarily be made about the other sumti values; the speaker has simply not specified them. Since Lojban is a logical language, we can express the difference between these two sumti values in another way. In a sentence like the first example, the omitted sumti values represented by "zo'e" do not determine whether the sentence is true or false. In this example, if John is going, and the destination is the market, the sentence is true, and the omitted values are therefore 'defined' as any values that are consistent with the sentence being true. In the second sentence, the additional claim is made that the values for the unspecified sumti are typical for the position. If the sentence is not true with the typical values inserted, the sentence is false. zo'e sumti have no effect on the truth value of a sentence. zu'i sumti claim that the typical value for the idea-role, although unspecified, makes the sentence true. Some additional examples: zo'e cu zutse le stizu ku (1.5-5) /zoh,heh shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ Something/someone unspecified sits on the chair. (The chair is being sat on.) zu'i cu zutse le stizu ku (1.5-6) /zoo,hee shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ The one who normally does, sits on the chair. zo'e cu tuple le tanxe ku (1.5-7) /zoh,heh shoo,TOO,pleh leh,TAHN,kheh,koo/ Something(s) unspecified is/are legs of the box. (The box has legs.) ti cu botpi zo'e zu'i (1.5-8) (tee shoo,BOHT,pee zoh,heh,zoo,hee This is a bottle containing something unspecified, made of the typical material (glass?). Like other sumti, "zo'e" and "zu'i" do not expressly indicate singular or plural. If the typical value for a sumti is plural, then "zu'i" can be translated as a plural. bridi sentences where one or more places are unspecified are common in Lojban usage, especially in Lojban speech. The speaker feels no need to communicate idea values that are already known to the listener, or irrelevant to the point being made. Usually, if sumti are omitted, they either are the trailing sumti, as in earlier example (1.5-3): la djan. cu klama le zarci ku zo'e zo'e zo'e (1.5-3) /lah,jahn. shoo,KLAH,mah leh,ZAHR,shee,koo zoh,heh,zoh,heh,zoh,heh/ John goes to the market, from somewhere unspecified, via some unspecified route, using some unspecified mode of transportation. or the first sumti, as in earlier example (1.5-5): zo'e cu zutse le stizu ku (1.5-5) /zoh,heh shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ Something/someone unspecified sits on the chair. (The chair is being sat on.) Lojban allows you to completely omit trailing sumti with the value "zo'e". Thus, (1.5-3) could be more simply expressed as: la djan. cu klama le zarci ku (1.5-3a) /lah,jahn. shoo,KLAH,mah leh,ZAHR,shee,kooh/ John goes to the market (from somewhere unspecified, via some unspecified route, using some unspecified mode of transportation.) The listener who knows that "klama" has five places in its structure knows that the final three places have nalnunsku sumti (unexpressed sumti) with the value "zo'e". The listener knows that the speaker chose not to define what these three sumti values were. If it seems important to the listener what any of those values are, the listener can ask for further information. Hint - among the place structures, you should concentrate on learning the first places of each brivla first, since trailing sumti are often omitted anyway. If you want to omit a "zo'e" in the first sumti position, and you are expressing the bridi in the normal way, with the first sumti before the selbri and the remaining sumti after the selbri as in example (1.5-5): zutse le stizu ku (1.5-5a) /ZOOT,seh leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ (Something/someone unspecified) sits on the chair. (Sitter on the chair.) (The chair is being sat on.) Notice that in (1.5-5a) there are no sumti before the selbri, which is "zutse". You may recall from the last section that any sumti rearrangement must always keep at least the first sumti before the selbri. Because of that rule, you can omit the first sumti in (1.5-5a), and it is still clear that "le stizu ku" is the second sumti of the relationship and not the first. (Notice also that the "cu" is not present; there is nothing before the selbri to be separated. Indeed, "cu" is not permitted unless there is a sumti expressed before the selbri.) This special rule allowing omission of the first sumti is important to practical use of Lojban. Recall that the words at either end of a sentence are most strongly emphasized to the listener. This omission places the selbri in that most important first position of the sentence. The result: You are walking across the street. Someone yells at you "ta karce". You look to find the speaker to see where he/she is pointing (the only way to tell what "ta" refers to in this context), while the car hits you. The alternative: You are walking across the street. Someone yells at you "karce." You know that the speaker considers it most important to call your attention to the relation "karce" - there is a car you need to know about. You look for the car, not the speaker, and thus avoid getting hit. "zo'e karce" would of course be grammatical, but the "zo'e" is an distraction. Leave it out and keep the emphasis on "karce". In English, we have a similar usage. You are seldom taught it in an English grammar class, because it is considered 'grammtically improper' in written English. But you would not hesitate to ponder correct grammar in the above situation. You would call out the warning "Car!". Similarly, upon seeing flames, you yell "Fire!" Unlike English, Lojban considers this usage perfectly grammatical in all situations. The convention requiring one sumti before the selbri ensures that the sumti assignments remain unambiguous. Omitting the first sumti in this way, resulting in the selbri coming first in the sentence, is given the special term observative in discussions of Lojban grammar. A Lojban word for this concept is zgabri (/ZGAH,bree/), or roughly translated, "observer-bridi". The word refers to the normal usage of this construction, which is that the speaker is observing something that fits in the first sumti position, which she/he wishes to call to your attention, without taking time to name or de- scribe it (or wasting time with the filler-word "zo'e". An observative, or zgabri is a bridi where the first sumti value is left unspecified (zo'e), and there are no other sumti to the left of the selbri. A zgabri indicates that the speaker observes the relationship and wants to call the listener's attention to it, emphasizing the selbri relation. The word observative also helps an English speaker distinguish this usage from another short English form, the imperative, or command. Lojban prevents the following from occurring: There has been a nearby armed robbery just before you drive up. The policeman, not knowing you, aims a gun at you, telling you to freeze until you can be frisked. Suddenly the building immediately behind the officer bursts into flames. You yell "Fire!" to warn the policeman, realizing that English is ambiguous just a bit too late. Contrived perhaps? But such confusions can occur in English in rather less dire circumstances. In Lojban, a command is a quite distinct form from an observative, as we will see in a later section. There are a few other ways to omit "zo'e" sumti that will be discussed in later sections and lessons. It's time now for you to practice the techniques of this section. ____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-5 larnuntoi papi'emumoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,MOO,moy/) Translate the following Lojban sentences into English. Assume a plural value for all "zo'e"s: 1. le botpi ku cu cmalu zu'i /leh,BOHT,pee,koo shoo,SHMAH,loo zoo,hee/ 2. le karce ku cu darxi mi zo'e le tuple ku /leh,KAHR,sheh,koo shoo,DAHR,khee,mee zoh,heh leh,TOO,pleh,koo/ 3. ta cu cukta zo'e zo'e zo'e /tah,shoo,SHOOK,tah zoh,heh zoh,heh zoh,heh/ 4. zo'e cu cukta /zoh,heh shoo,SHOOK,tah/ 5. blanu /BLAH,noo/ 6. sanli le jubme /SAHN,lee,leh,ZHOOB,meh/ 7. la .alis. cu klama ti tu /lah .AH,lees. shoo,KLAH,mah,tee,too/ 8. zu'i cu birka le prenu ku /zoo,hee shoo,BEER,kah leh,PREH,noo,koo/ 9. dunda ko'a mi /DOON,dah,koh,hah,mee/ 10. Which of the above sentences are observatives? Translate the following into Lojban, with explicit values for all sumti. 11. This is a book about Sherlock Holmes. 12. Susan sits at her usual place. 13. Fred talks to John in Lojban. 14. On the table (in answer to a question about where the bottle is.) 15. People! (remark of a hermit coming out of isolation) 16. Sherlock Holmes goes from London via car. Reconsider, for each of these six sentences, why you chose "zo'e" or "zu'i" for the elliptical sumti values before checking your answers. For each sentence among 11. through 16. where it is possible, rewrite your translation omitting the nalnunsku sumti where it is permitted. Identify which of the resulting sentences are zgabri. 17. Try to devise another English example where an observative and an identical imperative could be confused with serious effect. (A hint if you have no ideas - try using the word "attack".) ____________________________________________________________________________ 1.6 Descriptions Using bridi mulbricmu sumti (/mool,BREE,shmoo,SOOM,tee/) Recall the definition of a description sumti (one marked with "le" and "ku"). That definition stated that the selbri describes a property of the idea being expressed. But selbri do not describe properties; they describe relations among sumti. We can now give a better definition and explanation. When you convert a selbri to a description sumti, you are saying that the resulting sumti is a valid first sumti for a bridi based on that selbri relation. Thus, for example: le zutse ku (1.6-1) /leh,ZOOT,seh,koo/ The sitter can be interpreted by making the sumti the first one of a bridi based on "zutse": le zutse ku cu zutse (zo'e) (1.6-1a) /leh,ZOOT,seh,koo shoo,ZOOT,seh (zoh,heh)/ ______ sits (on something unspecified). and the sumti "le zutse ku" is therefore an idea the speaker is describing as "something that sits (on something else unspecified)". This is roughly equivalent to "the sitter". Similarly,: le blanu ku (1.6-2) /leh,BLAH,noo,koo/ The blue one(s) communicates an idea that fits into: le blanu ku cu blanu (1.6-2a) /leh,BLAH,noo,koo shoo,BLAH,noo/ ______ is blue. and is thus fits the description "something that is blue". (Usually, with this type of sumti, the speaker has something specific in mind that she/he is describing, so a better phrasing is "something I have in mind, that I am describing as being blue". We emphasize the word 'describing' in this definition. The speaker is trying to communicate a particular idea, and does so by describing it in terms that the listener can use to identify that idea.) Notice that, in (1.6-1) the description expanded to a bridi with an elliptically unspecified sumti. The speaker's description deals only with the first place of the bridi's place structure. The other sumti are implicitly part of the bridi even but are not specified. By the rules described in the last section, these sumti are interpreted as nalnunsku sumti (elliptically-omitted sumti) with the value "zo'e"; i.e. they do not matter to the description. But, what if they do matter? Two people are in a room with a chair and a table. One person is sitting in the chair; the other is sitting on the table. The one sitting on the table starts talking. A speaker trying to describe this situation has a problem. If she/he expresses: le zutse ku cu tavla le zutse ku (1.6-3) /leh,ZOOT,seh,koo shoo,TAHV,lah leh,ZOOT,seh,koo/ The sitter talks to the sitter (about ... in language ...). the description in each position could apply to either of the people in the room (one person might even be talking to herself or himself). Clearly, we need a way to incorporate the other sumti of "zutse" into the description. As you might expect, Lojban provides a way to do this. We tightly bind the extra sumti "into" the selbri, using the word "be" (pronounced /beh/ and not like the English word spelled the same way). We then end the construct with "be'o" (/beh,hoh/). Extra sumti may be bound to a selbri for incorporation into a description sumti. The cmavo "be" and "be'o" are used to mark these tightly-bound sumti. Thus, if the speaker were to point to the one sitting on the table, he/she could use the expression: ta cu zutse le jubme ku (1.6-4) /tah shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo/ That (one) sits on the table. which can be converted into a 'tightly bound' form: ta cu zutse be le jubme ku be'o (1.6-4a) ta cu zutse /tah shoo,ZOOT,seh beh,leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo,beh,hoh/ That (one) is a sitter-on-the-table. That (one) sits on the table. (1.6-4) and (1.6-4a) are identical in meaning. You will not generally use the form (1.6-4a), though, in Lojban speech or writing, since it has two unnecessary words that add nothing to the sentence. But the form (1.6-4a) is grammatical in Lojban, and serves as an intermediate step to converting the 'completed bridi' into a more specific description. In other words, the tightly-bound sumti is now attached as part of the selbri, and when that selbri is surrounded with "le" and "ku", we get our desired description sumti: le zutse be le jubme ku be'o ku (1.6-4b) /leh,ZOOT,seh beh,leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo beh,hoh,koo/ The sitter-on-the-table which can then be inserted in a bridi sentence communicating which of the two sitters is talking: le zutse be le jubme ku be'o ku cu tavla (1.6-4c) le zutse ku cu tavla /leh,ZOOT,seh beh,leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo beh,hoh,koo shoo,TAHV,lah/ The sitter-on-the-table talks [to... about... in language ...]. In case there was some doubt as to who was being 'talked to', the speaker could specify in detail: le zutse be le jubme ku be'o ku cu tavla le zutse be le stizu ku be'o ku (1.6-4d) le zutse ku cu tavla le zutse ku /leh,ZOOT,seh beh,leh,ZHOOB,meh,koo beh,hoh,koo shoo,TAHV,lah leh,ZOOT,seh beh,leh,STEE,zoo,koo/ The sitter-on-the-table talks to the sitter-on-the-chair [about... in language ...]. "le" and "ku" pairs surround both the 'inner sumti' attached to the selbri in each description, as well as each entire description sumti. An important rule in Lojban is that every "le" has a closing "ku", and every "be" has a closing "be'o". The result is Lojban's completely unambiguous grammar. Occasionally, you may want to be even more specific in a description sumti, by attaching more than one sumti to the description selbri. Lojban allows this as well, using one additional cmavo (structure word), "bei" (/bey/, rhyming with English "day"). "bei" is inserted between each sumti which is to be tightly bound into the selbri. Only one "be'o" is used, after the final bound sumti, to end the entire construct. bei separates multiple sumti attached to a description, as part of a set marked with be/be'o. To show the resulting form, let us start with a bridi having two sumti to be included in a description: ta cu darxi le stedu ku le cukta ku (1.6-5) /tah shoo,DAHR,khee leh,STEH,doo,koo leh,SHOOK,tah,koo/ That [one] hits the head with the book [at specific locus ...]. Both trailing sumti may be tightly bound to the selbri using all three of the cmavo "be", "bei", and "be'o": ta cu darxi be le stedu ku bei le cukta ku be'o (1.6-5a) ta cu darxi /tah shoo,DAHR,khee beh,leh,STEH,doo,koo bey,leh,SHOOK,tah,koo/ That [one] is a hitter-on-the-head-with-the-book [at specific locus ...]. That [one] hits the head with the book [at specific locus ...]. And this form of the bridi can be made into a description sumti of another bridi: le darxi be le stedu ku bei le cukta ku be'o cu cmalu (1.6-5b) le darxi cu cmalu /leh,DAHR,khee beh,leh,STEH,doo,koo bey,leh,SHOOK,tah,koo shoo,SHMAH,loo/ The hitter-on-the-head-with-the-book is small. You could attach an indefinite number of additional sumti into a description if you wanted to, although the result gets somewhat unwieldy. Thus, even a completely specified "klama" bridi (with five sumti) could become a description sumti, shown schematically as: le klama be [the destination] bei [the origin] bei [the route] bei [the mode of transport] be'o ku (1.6-6) You can also use any number of description sumti in the places of a bridi. The result is a single sentence with several implied sentences hidden inside it. Much of Lojban's expressive power comes from this unlimited ability to 'nest' sentences inside each other in several ways, allowing grammatically unambiguous expressions equivalent to any English sentence, no matter how complex. By comparison, in very complex English sentences, you can easily get confused as to how the various phrases that make up the sentence are related. Let us summarize the three new cmavo presented in this section: be /beh/ Tightly binds following sumti up until a closing be'o to a preceding selbri, to form a description usable inside a sumti. bei /bey/ Separates multiple sumti in a "be" construct. be'o /beh,ho/ Marks the end of sumti in a "be"-marked set to be tightly bound to a selbri. In Section 1.8, you will see why these are all necessary to Lojban's unambiguous grammar. ____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-6 larnuntoi papi'examoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,KHAH,moy/) Translate the following into English: 1. le cpana be le karce ku be'o ku cu tanxe /leh,SHPAH,nah beh,leh,KAHR,sheh,koo,beh,hoh,koo shoo,TAHN,kheh/ 2. tu cu stedu le cmalu be le tuple ku be'o ku /too shoo,STEH,doo leh,SHMAH,loo beh,leh,TOOP,leh,koo,beh,hoh,koo/ 3. le stedu be le senci ku be'o ku cu xunre /leh,STEH,doo beh,leh,SEHN,shee,koo,beh,hoh,koo shoo,KHOON,reh/ 4. le stedu be la fred. be'o ku cu cpana le birka be la suzn. be'o ku /leh,STEH,doo beh,lah,frehd. beh,hoh,koo shoo,SHPAH,nah leh,BEER,kah beh,lah,SOO,zn. beh,hoh,koo/ 5. le tavla be zo'e bei zo'e bei la lojban. be'o ku cu zutse mi /leh,TAHV,lah beh,zoh,heh bey,zoh,heh bey,lah,LOHZH,bahn. beh,hoh,koo shoo,ZOOT,seh,mee/ Translate the following bridi into English. Then convert the bridi into description sumti with "be", "bei", and "be'o" inserted as appropriate, and translate them. Example: ta cu darxi le xunre ku /tah shoo,DAHR,khee leh,KHOON,reh,koo/ That hits the red thing. / That is a hitter of the red thing./ le darxi be le xunre ku be'o ku [le darxi ku] /leh,DAHR,khee beh,leh,KHOON,reh,koo beh,hoh,koo/ The hitter of the red thing. 6. ko'a cu zutse le tanxe ku /koh,hah shoo,ZOOT,seh leh,TAHN,kheh,koo/ 7. ko'e cu tavla mi do /koh/heh shoo,TAHV,lah mee,doh/ 8. ti cu cukta la maRIS. .antuaNET. la carl. deGOL. le prenu ku /tee shoo,SHOOK,tah lah,mah,REES. .ahn,twah,NEHT. lah,sharl. deh,GOHL. leh,PREH,noo,koo/ Translate the following into Lojban: 9. I hit the arm of you. 10. The sneezer stands on the book about Sherlock Holmes. 11. The box containing the whip is upon the box containing the bottle. 12. You go to the market operated by Alice which sells the boxes. 13. Giver of the small-one to John. _________________________________________________________________________ 1.7 Modification phrases as selbri tanru (TAHN,roo) Lojban does not limit you to individual brivla in the selbri. When multiple brivla are put together into a selbri, the result is a construct called a tanru. Much of Lojban's grammar relates directly to the relationships between the words of a tanru. On the surface, a simple tanru (two adjacent brivla) looks and acts just like two adjacent words do in English. The first modifies or restricts the second in a way that gives a slightly different meaning. Thus "blanu botpi" appears very similar to the corresponding English in: le blanu botpi ku cu cmalu (1.7-1) /leh,BLAH,nooBOHT,pee,koo shoo,SHMAH,loo/ The blue bottle is small. As a result of this similarity, without much understanding of the language, you can produce a variety of grammatical Lojban sentences based on the corresponding word groupings in English. The results will be close, if not always identical, to your desired intent. Complications can arise, though. In many subtle ways, Lojban tanru differ from English modification. Let's look more closely at how the concept is similar to, and and how it differs from, English. Firstly, "tanru" has no English equivalent word; English does not truly use the concept in the Lojban way. Two similar concepts from English are metaphor and modification, but each of these words is potentially misleading. After defining Lojban tanru, we will return to explain how it contrasts with these English concepts. You have seen that Lojban brivla cannot be categorized as nouns (substantive things), verbs (actions), or adjectives (describing modifiers), the most commonly known English word types. As selbri, they describe relations among several sumti idea-roles. Incorporated into description sumti, they describe the ideas that are related. When brivla join with other brivla, the relations defining each component word in the tanru interact. tanru are forms where two or more brivla interact in meaning to form a more complex selbri. The grammar of such interactions is unambiguous. To understand what happens, let us look at the place structure of each of the two brivla in the example above. We will use a format for expressing place structures that makes it easier to keep track of which idea-role goes with which brivla. The sumti places will be numbered and prefixed with a letter or letters that refer to the brivla that governs their relation to others in the bridi. Thus: (1.7-2) blanu bl1 exhibits the color blue botpi bo1 is a bottle, containing bo2, and made of material bo3 In a tanru, the more essential place structure is that of the final brivla, in this case "botpi". If the tanru is used as a selbri of a sentence, the place structure of the resulting bridi will be that of "botpi". "blanu" modifies this relation, which involves, but is not limited to, a bottle. Specifically, the first place of "blanu" (the only place in this case) in some way restricts the relation, so that "blanu botpi" does not just refer to any kind of bottle, contents, and material, but to a combination of these that in some way involves something exhibiting the color blue. With no context clues, we can easily see at least three ways that "blanu botpi" could meet this restriction: - the bottle itself could exhibit a blue color; it could be partially or completely colored blue; - the contents of the bottle could exhibit the color blue; - the material that the bottle is made from could exhibit the color blue (even if the bottle itself does not). In addition, there is a requirement that the modifying word be significant to understanding the relation. A bottle of sand with one almost invisible sand grain colored blue, and all of the rest some other color, does not fit the relation "blanu botpi", unless the listener somehow knows that one grain is there and that the one grain is important to the relationship being described by the speaker. Context of course determines which of the possible meanings are meant by the speaker. The meanings of Lojban tanru are somewhat ambiguous in being context-dependent. The meanings are however constrained, and the grammar rules that govern their formation are quite restricted and completely unambiguous. Lojban allows a variety of more complex expressions to elaborate on which of these possible interpretations of the tanru is the intended one, in case there is uncertainty. In fact, much of the grammar of the language involves the removal of the ambiguity in meaning this one construct introduces. As a result, in practice, tanru are no more ambiguous than the speaker can tolerate while still being clear to the listener. Let's look at another tanru with more complex place structures to see how the components interact: (1.7-3) botpi bo1 is a bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3 tanxe ta1 is a box/carton containing ta2, and made of material ta3 botpi tanxe ta1 is a (bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3) kind-of box/carton containing ta2, and made of material ta3 The bo1 place has disappeared, as if we were turning botpi into a description sumti. There are many grammatical similarities between descriptions and tanru. In the tanru, the first place of the left brivla indicates how the brivla modifies the relation expressed by the right brivla. The resulting place structure is that of the right brivla. The ta1 place of "botpi tanxe" is thus still a kind of box; ta2 is still a kind of box contents, and ta3 is still a kind of box material. In addition, something about this relationship is constrained by the "botpi" relationship. Some possibilities: - the box is bottle-shaped, making ta1 both a bottle and a box; - the box contains one or more bottles; - the box is made of one or more bottles; - the box is the contents of one or more bottles; - the box is the material used for making one or more bottles. Of these, some are more plausible than others (the second seems most likely given no context), and the last is somewhat difficult to imagine. The speaker must make sure that the tanru and the context of the discussion are together sufficiently explicit that the listener has enough information to determine what relationship is being expressed. This can involve being more explicit about the values of the various sumti involved. Thus, if the box is made of cardboard (ta3) and the bottle is made of glass (bo3), then the listener knows that neither the box is made of bottles nor the bottle(s) are made of boxes. In practice of course, the speaker and listener will usually be able to communicate with little or no expansion of the tanru. tanru use the place structure of their right-most brivla. There is no restriction in which brivla are allowed to modify which other brivla. Looking at the same two words from the last example in reverse order, "tanxe botpi" is a relationship built on the concept of "botpi", and restricted by "tanxe". Some possible interpretations are: - the bottle is box-shaped, making ta1 both a box and a bottle; - the bottle contains one or more boxes; - the bottle is made of one or more boxes; - the bottle is the contents of one or more boxes; - the bottle is the material used for making one or more boxes. In this set, it is the fourth interaction that seems most plausible in the absence of context, although with some imagination, you can probably think of circumstances that would indicate the other interactions. This feature of tanru, the freedom to order things to most clearly suit the intended meaning, is quite unlike English. It is significantly easier to accept the idea of a 'bottle box' than that of a 'box bottle'. Even more significant, a 'blue bottle' is both plausible and grammatical, while *'bottle blue' is generally not. In Lojban, "botpi blanu" is a perfectly acceptable tanru, having one sumti place: (1.7-4) botpi blanu bl1 is a (bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3) kind-of thing exhibiting the color blue. which seems quite similar to "blanu botpi". However, the place structure of "blanu botpi" would be different, being based on "botpi": (1.7-5) blanu botpi bo1 is a (exhibiting the color blue) kind-of bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3. "blanu botpi", in addition to plausibly referring to a blue-colored bottle, might also suggest that the contents are blue, or that the material the bottle is made from might be blue. "botpi blanu" is a blue object that is in some way defined by "botpi", most likely a bottle that is colored blue, but possibly also a blue thing that is in a bottle, or a blue thing used as a material for a bottle. One more example emphasizes the importance of remembering that it is the first sumti place of the left brivla that defines the modification, while re-emphasizing how different brivla are from English words: (1.7-6) tavla ta1 talks to ta2 about ta3 in language ta4 karce ka1 is a car tavla karce ka1 is a (talker to ta2 about ta3 in language ta4) kind-of car The tanru has the place structure of "karce", so the resulting tanru is most certainly a kind of car. It is not a *"talk car", though, as might be suggested by the English words associated with the two brivla. Because the modifying brivla has a talker in the first sumti place, a better English equivalent is "talker-car", which is similar in English, but broader in potential meaning than the incorrect translation "talking car". A "tavla karce" could be any of: - a car that is a talker (i.e. a talking car); - a car owned by a talker; - a car driven by a talker; - a car ridden in by a talker. Interpretations based on other places of "tavla" are possible, such as: - a car that is talked about by a talker; - a car that is talked to by a talker; and most implausibly: - a car that is part or all of a talker's language (not the word for the car - the car itself). The example shows, among other things, that the modifications are not limited to those directly implied from the modifying brivla's place structure. Three of the more plausible meanings draw on ownership, drivership, and ridership, attributes of a car that are not part of the place structure defining "karce". The example shows also, that while the modification can involve other places of "tavla" indirectly, a talker, the first place of "tavla" still has to be involved somehow. Let's now return to those two English equivalent words for "tanru", to clarify how they conceptually relate to tanru. The abstract concept of metaphor makes an excellent word for a tanru, referring to the expansion of possible meanings resulting from bringing in other relationships. English metaphors, however, are often figurative, they suggest rather than state the intended meaning, often by painting mental pictures drawing on the connotations of words rather than their actual meanings. Lojban tanru are seldom figurative; you most often interpret a tanru by taking it literally. "blanu botpi" shouldn't be taken to imply that the bottle is sad, because in Lojban, "blanu" relates to color and not to emotion. (If indeed, a bottle can be sad, and when doing so it becomes blue, "blanu botpi" is applicable, but this circumstance happens only in dreams and hallucinations.) Modification also makes a good word for tanru. In English, however, modification is assumed to be one way, whereas in Lojban, the place structures of the two components interact. From the standpoint of sentence structure, of course, the left brivla is modifying the right brivla; in terms of meaning, though, the places structures of both brivla remain intact. Let us look at the grammatical structure of a tanru to see how this works. A tanru incorporates more than just the two brivla. It also incorporates the trailing places of the left brivla. As in description sumti, these trailing sumti are usually omitted through ellipsis. When they are to be expressed, the same grammatical form is used: tight-binding of sumti using be/bei/be'o. Thus one can say, pointing at a car: ta cu tavla be mi be'o karce (1.7-7) ta cu karce /tah shoo,TAHV,lah,beh,mee,beh,hoh,KAHR,sheh/ That is a talker-to-me kind-of car. Such a modification occurs rarely in natural English. One of the few examples is the phrase "faster-than-light spaceship". Still, the terminology of metaphor and modification are useful in talking about tanru. Thus, when we talk about elaborating on the meaning of a vague tanru, we can call it (in English) "expanding upon the metaphor", or possibly "clarifying the metaphor". And when we talk of the two components of a tanru, we can call the left one (again in English) the "modifier" and the right one the "modificand". tanru need not be limited to two brivla terms. However, when there are more than two terms, the tanru is analyzed in meaning by successive paired groupings. The order of this successive evaluation is fixed in Lojban and is a key to Lojban's claim as an unambiguous language. Similar English situations are not unambiguous - you have no way to determine the order of grouping without using heavily stilted language. Combining two of our examples from above, the English: blue bottle box (1.7-8) is ambiguous. Which is blue - the bottle(s) or the box? The Lojban: blanu botpi tanxe (1.7-9) is not. tanru are always analyzed as modifier/modificand pairs. In other words, there is always a left side and a right side of the tanru, and the left side modifies the right side. When there are three or more terms in the tanru, as in (1.7-9), this left-to-right analysis 'groups from the left'. You take the first two words, analyze them as a 2-word tanru, and then use the results as the left side of another modification pair, with the 3rd word as the right side. Thus (1.7-9) is evaluated as: (blanu botpi) tanxe (1.7-9a) In longer tanru, normal grouping for interpretation is from left to right. This is called left grouping. You first make the tanru "blanu botpi", then use the result (having the place structure of "botpi") as a modifier for "tanxe". The place structure of the entire three-part tanru is that of "tanxe"; i.e. we are dealing with some kind of box, its contents, and its component material: (1.7-9b) blanu bl1 exhibits the color blue botpi bo1 is a bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3 blanu botpi bo1 is a (exhibiting the color blue) kind-of bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3. tanxe ta1 is a box/carton containing ta2, and made of material ta3 blanu botpi tanxe ta1 is a <(exhibiting the color blue) kind-of bottle containing bo2, and made of material bo3> kind-of box/carton containing ta2, and made of material ta3 In Lojban, tanru grouping is ALWAYS from left-to-right, unless there are certain cmavo present that explicitly modify the grouping order. We will discuss the ways you can alter left-to- right grouping in later lessons. ____________________________________________________________________________ Exercise 1-7 larnuntoi papi'ezemoi (/lahr,NOON,toy PAH,pee,heh,ZEH,moy/) Analyze the place structures of the following tanru after the manner of example (1.7-3). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. For each of the tanru above, give at least three plausible interpretations for the tanru. Translate the following into understandable Lojban tanru. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. For each tanru above, give at least two alternative interpretations besides the one you translated. ____________________________________________________________________________ 1.8 Lojban - An Unambiguous Language We have several times described Lojban as an 'unambiguous' language. Yet we have just presented tanru, a construct that is basic to Lojban, as a language feature that is extremely ambiguous in meaning. Let us briefly explain what we mean in calling Lojban 'unambiguous'. Far more than any other language, Lojban draws a firm line separating the meaning of a word from its 'grammar', the way that it interacts with other words to form sentences. With Lojban, you need not know what a word 'means', in order to figure out those interactions. You can tell by the word's position, and its membership in one of a small number of categories of words (somewhat like the 'parts of speech' that you were perhaps taught in learning English grammar). One of these categories - indeed the largest one - is brivla, the words used to express relations. If you know that a word is a brivla, you know that it can form tanru, be used in selbri and descriptions based on those selbri. You know that it has a fixed place structure. And you know, even without knowing what each idea-role in the place structure means, which sumti in a sentence go in each place. This is not true for English or for any other language. There are so many interactions among words and exceptions in how each English word relates to its normal 'part of speech', that the rules for each word are subtly different from every other word. Indeed, speakers of English in different parts of the United States, or from other English speaking countries, may have different rules from each other for the same word. It is a wonder that people speaking English can understand each other. (Indeed, English-speakers from some Asian and African countries normally speak a variety of English that a North American or British speaker would find extremely hard to understand.) Lojban grammar rules operate without exception, and this makes it easier to concentrate on the meanings of the words themselves. Using tanru it is possible to express extremely subtle differences in meaning quite clearly in spite of the ranges of interpretation of tanru. By expressing additional place structure values within a tanru, or by using certain forms that we will cover later, you can be as specific as you wish, to avoid the problems of ambiguity. Yet even at its worst, tanru ambiguity is mild compared to comparable ambiguities in English. For example, given the English phrase "pretty little girls school", you should be able to find several possible interpretations. You will NOT, however, without considerable context, know whether it is the girls or the school that is/are little (or both?). Moreover you will not know whether the school is pretty, the girls are pretty, or the word "pretty" is being used to modify "little" in a way totally unrelated to beauty. It turns out that there are as many as two dozen interpretations possible based solely on the interactions of the words; you will be lucky to think of ten of these without some systematic analysis. Allowing for the dual meaning of "pretty" when it interacts with "little", the number of possibilities becomes much larger. Imagine if the speaker has an interpretation in mind that is not one that you naturally think of. You would fail to understand the speaker's intent, but in addition might misunderstand by incorrectly choosing the most plausible meaning among those that you do think of. In Lojban, each of those two dozen interactions are expressed differently. The simplest form, with no extra cmavo, groups in pairs from the left as described in the last section. This gives: <(pretty little) girls> school a school for girls that are beautifully little The special meaning of "pretty" interacting with "little" that does not imply beauty would not even be possible using the normal Lojban word for "pretty" - you would use a different Lojban word for that different meaning. Lojban is unambiguous in other ways beyond the grouping of tanru. Within a sentence, you know exactly when partial-sentence phrases (like selbri and sumti) start and end. As we earlier noted, all sumti that start with "le" (descriptions) end with "ku". sumti attached to a selbri in tightly-bound form with "be" end the construct with "bei". Always knowing where all the pieces of a sentence start and end means that you understand moderately complex sentences more easily without confusion. As an example, you overhear part of an English sentence spoken in another room: "John walked over to the window by Mary and ..." These more complex sentences in turn allows a Lojban speaker to express finer distinctions in meaning clearly; such a speaker can also express ideas that require much more complicated structure and expect to be understood. Most of us have been confused in reading a government regulation or a legal document that uses very precise English and very complicated sentences. A Lojban sentence of equal complexity would be much easier to understand. 1.9 Where's The selbri? 1.10 Conversion 1.11 Questions 1.12 Abstractions 1.13 What Comes Next? 1.14 Summary 1.15 Word List for this Lesson bikla /BEE,klah/ x1 whips/lashes [a sudden violent motion] birka /BEER,kah/ x1 is a/the arm [body-part] of x2; [metaphor: branch with strength] blanu /BLAH,noo/ x1 is blue [color adjective] botpi /BOHT,pee/ x1 is a bottle/jar/urn/closable container for x2, made of material x3 with lid x4 cmalu /SHMAH,loo/ x1 is small in property/dimension(s) x2 (ka) as compared with standard/norm x3 cpana /SHPAH,nah/ x1 is upon/atop/resting on/lying on [the upper surface of] x2 in frame of reference x3 cukta /SHOOK,tah/ x1 is a book about subject/theme x2 by author x3 for audience x4 preserved in medium x5 darxi /DAHR,xee/ x1 hits/strikes/[beats] x2 with instrument [or body-part] x3 at locus x4 dunda /DOON,dah/ x1 [donor] gives/donates gift/present x2 to recipient/beneficiary x3 jubme /ZHOOB,meh/ x1 is a table/flat solid upper surface of material x2, supported by legs/base/pedestal x3 karce /KAHR,sheh/ x1 is a car/truck [a wheeled motor vehicle] for carrying x2, propelled by x3 klama /KLAH,mah/ x1 comes/goes to destination x2 from origin x3 via route x4 using means/vehicle x5 plise /PLEE,seh/ x1 is an apple [fruit] of species/strain x2 prenu /PREH,noo/ x1 is a person/people (noun) [not necessarily human]; x1 displays personality/a persona sanli /SAHN,lee/ x1 stands [is vertically oriented] on surface x2 supported by limbs/support/pedestal x3 senci /SEN,shee/ x1 sneezes [intransitive verb] stedu /STEH,doo/ x1 is a/the head [body-part] of x2; [metaphor: uppermost portion] stizu /STEE,zoo/ x1 is a chair/stool/seat/bench tanxe /TAHN,kheh/ x1 is a box/carton/trunk for contents x2, and made of material x3 tavla /TAHV,lah/ x1 talks/speaks to x2 about subject x3 in language x4 tuple /TOO,pleh/ x1 is a/the leg [body-part] of x2; [metaphor: supporting branch] xunre /KHOON,reh/ x1 is red/crimson/ruddy [color adjective] zarci /ZAHR,shee/ x1 is a market/store/exchange/marketplace selling x2, operated by/with participants x3 zutse /ZOO,tseh/ x1 sits [assumes sitting position] on surface x2 la djan. /lah,jahn./ la fred. /lah,frehd./ la suzn. /lah,SOO,znn./ la .alis. /lah .AH,lees./ la .iunaitydsteits. /lah .yoo,NAI,tuhd,steyts./ la DO'itclynt. /lah,DOH,heetch,luhnt./ la lojban. /lah,LOHZH,bahn./ la nu,IORK. /lah,noo,YOHRK./ la LNdn. /lah,LNN,dnn./ la CRlok. xolmz. /lah,SHRR,lohk. khohlmz./ la maRIS. .antuaNET. /lah,mah,REES. .ahn,twah,NEHT./ la carl. deGOL. /lah,shahrl. deh,GOHL./ la .astral,ias. /lah .ahs,TRAHL,yahs./ la nedrlynt. /lah,NEH,drr,luhnt./ mi /mee/ identifies the speaker (and sometimes others that she/he is speaking for) as a sumti do /doh/ identifies the person(s) being spoken to as a sumti ko'a /ko,hah/ identifies some specific person or persons, or some thing or things, as a sumti. "ko'a" thus corresponds to English "he", "she", "it", and "they". ko'e /ko,heh/ is identical to "ko'a", but is available to identify a different sumti when "ko'a" is already in use. ti /tee/ identifies this thing 'here' that the speaker is pointing to (or otherwise specifically indicating) as a sumti. "ti" can be used in several places in the same sentence; you can indicate something different each time you use it in a sentence. ta /tah/ identifies that thing 'there' (usually further away from "mi" than "ti") that the speaker is pointing to (or otherwise specifically indicating) as a sumti. Like "ti", "ta" can be used in several places in the same sentence, and you can indicate something different each time you use it. You can also use "ti" and "ta" together to keep the relative distance clear. tu /too/ identifies that thing 'yonder' (usually further away from both "mi" and "do" than both are from "ta") that the speaker is pointing to (or otherwise specifically indicating) as a sumti. Like "ti" and "ta", "tu" can be used in several places in the same sentence. la /lah/ le /leh/ ku /koo/ cu /shoo/ ke /keh/ ke'e /keh,heh/ zo'e /zoh,heh/ identifies the sumti as being filled by some unspecified value, which is elliptically omitted; the speaker is explicitly indicating that the sumti value is not being defined. The actual value is plausible, but not necessarily a particular typical value for the position. zu'i /zoo,hee/ identifies the sumti as being filled by the typical value for this idea-role that particularly fits the context, but which is elliptically omitted. be /beh/ Tightly binds following sumti up until a closing be'o to a preceding selbri, to form a description usuable inside a sumti. bei /bey/ Separates multiple sumti in a "be" construct. be'o /beh,ho/ Marks the end of sumti in a "be"-marked set to be tightly bound to a selbri. Part II Learning Lojban nu cilre la lojban. /noo,SHEEL,reh lah,LOHZH,bahn./ This part of the textbook contains 21 lessons. These lessons are shorter than the initial lesson. Using a minimum of memorized vocabulary, the basic concepts of the language and its grammar are discussed in some depth. Part II goes into more depth on the basic concepts of the language. Many examples are presented, with explanations that show the variety of grammatical expressions that can be elaborated from the basic sentence structure. The exercises are more challenging than in Part I, requiring the student to look up words in the Appendix, and produce sentences illustrating the points covered. Lesson 2 - Pronunciation Lesson 3 - Names & Vocatives Lesson 4 - Conversation Lesson 5 - Place Structures Lesson 6 - Place Structure Exercise Lesson 7 - bridi Lesson 8 - Attitudinal Indicators Lesson 9 - Abstraction Lesson 10 - Numbers Lesson 11 - *** More Numbers Lesson 12 - Questions Lesson 13 - tanru Lesson 14 - tanru and Metaphor Lesson 15 - Tenses Lesson 16 - Elision Lesson 17 - Relative Clauses Lesson 18 - *** More Relative Clauses Lesson 19 - Descriptions Lesson 20 - "The Date" Lesson 21 - selgadri sumti Lesson 22 - seltcita sumti 1 This can be seen by looking at the Lojban for the three examples: la. .alis. cu catlu la djein. (1.1-1) la. .alis. cu cmamau la djein. (1.1-2) la .alis. cu mensi la djein. (1.1-3) 2 The asterisk in front of a block of text is used to mark an English or Lojban sentence that is incorrect for some reason. 3 Examples include "I sit" vs. "John sits", the past tense "I sat", the usually regular plural ending "-s" or "-es" (but "foot"/"feet" and "mouse"/"mice", and "deer"/"deer"), and the possessive ending "John"/"John's" (but differing for plurals "the cats"/"the cats'"). Lojban uses none of these inflections. 4 Not to be confused with the grammatical jargon term predicate, which is something else entirely. This book uses Lojban terms instead of English jargon precisely to avoid such confusion. 5 The period in the spelling and pronunciation guides means that you must pause between the two adjacent syllables to make sure that they don't slur together. The pause can be extremely short - in which case it is called a glottal stop. A glottal stop is the break formed when you say "go over" without slurring the words together.