PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD VERSION. The current version is linked from The Complete Lojban Language.

15. More about non-logical connectives

The final three JOI cmavo, ``jo'e'', ``ku'a'', and ``pi'u'', are probably only useful when talking explicitly about sets. They represent three standard set operators usually called ``union'', ``intersection'', and ``cross product'' (also known as ``Cartesian product''). The union of two sets is a set containing all the members that are in either set; the intersection of two sets is a set containing all the members that are in both sets. The cross product of two sets is the set of all possible ordered pairs, where each ordered pair contains a single element from the first set followed by a single element from the second. This may seem very abstract; hopefully, the following examples will help:

15.1)    lo'i ricfu ku jo'e lo'i dotco
        cu barda
    The-set-of rich-things union the-set-of German-things
        is large.
    
15.2) lo'i ricfu ku ku'a
        lo'i dotco cu cmalu
    The set-of rich-things intersection
        the-set-of German-things is small.
There is a parallelism between logic and set theory that makes Example 15.1 and Example 15.2 equivalent respectively to:
15.3)    lo'i ricfu ja dotco cu barda
    The-set-of rich-or-German-things is large.
and
15.4)    lo'i ricfu je dotco cu cmalu
    The-set-of rich-and-German-things is small.

The following example uses ``se remei'', which is a set (not a mass) of two elements:

15.5)    la djeimyz. ce[bo] la djordj.
        pi'u la meris. cebo la martas.
        cu prami se remei
    James and-set George
        cross-product Mary and-set Martha
        are-lover type-of-pairs.
means that each of the pairs James/Mary, George/Mary, James/Martha, and George/Martha love each other. Therefore it is similar in meaning to Example 14.13; however, that example speaks only of the men loving the women, not vice versa.

Joiks may be combined with ``bo'' or with ``ke'' in the same way as eks and jeks; this allows grouping of non-logical connections between sumti and tanru units, in complete parallelism with logical connections:

15.6)    mi joibo do ce la djan. joibo la djein.
        cu gunma se remei
    (I massed-with you) and (John massed-with Jane)
        are-a-mass type-of-two-set
asserts that there is a set of two items each of which is a mass.

Non-logical connection is permitted at the joint of a termset; this is useful for associating more than one sumti or tagged sumti with each side of the non-logical connection. The place structure of ``casnu'' is:

the mass x1 discusses/talks about x2
so the x1 place must be occupied by a mass (for reasons not explained here); however, different components of the mass may discuss in different languages. To associate each participant with his or her language, we can say:

15.7)     mi ce'e bau la lojban.
        pe'e joi do ce'e bau la gliban. nu'u casnu
    ( I [plus] in-language Lojban
        massed-with you [plus] in-language English ) discuss.

Like all non-logical connectives, the usage shown in Example 15.7 cannot be mechanically converted into a non-logical connective placed at another location in the bridi. The forethought equivalent of Example 15.7 is:

15.8)     nu'i joigi mi bau la lojban
        gi do bau la gliban. nu'u casnu
Non-logical forethought termsets are also useful when the things to be non-logically connected are sumti preceded with tense or modal (BAI) tags:
15.9)    la djan. fa'u la frank. cusku
        nu'i bau la lojban.
        nu'u fa'u
            bai la djordj. [nu'u]
    John respectively-with Frank express
        [start termset] in-language Lojban
        [joint] respectively-with
            under-compulsion-by George.
    John and Frank speak in Lojban and under George's
        compulsion, respectively.
Example 14.17 associates speaking in Lojban with John, and speaking under George's compulsion with Frank. We do not know what language Frank uses, or whether John speaks under anyone's compulsion.

Joiks may be prefixed with ``.i'' to produce ijoiks, which serve to non-logically connect sentences. The main known use here is ``.ice'o'', which indicates that the event of the second bridi follows that of the first bridi in some way other than a time relationship (which is handled with a tense):

15.10)  mi ba gasnu la'edi'e
        .i tu'e kanji lo ni cteki
        .ice'o lumci le karce
        .ice'o dzukansa le gerku tu'u
    I [future] do the-referent-of-the-following:
        ( Compute the quantity of taxes.
        And-then wash the car.
        And-then walkingly-accompany the dog. )
    List of things to do:
        Figure taxes.
        Wash car.
        Walk dog.
Example 15.10 represents a list of things to be done in priority order. The order is important, hence the need for a sequence connective, but does not necessarily represent a time order (the dog may end up getting walked first). Note the use of ``tu'e'' and ``tu'u'' as general brackets around the whole list. This is related to, but distinct from, their use in Section 8, because there is no logical connective between the introductory phrase ``mi ba gasnu la'edi'e'' and the rest. The brackets effectively show how large an utterance the word ``di'e'', which means ``the following utterance'', refers to.

The following ``nai'', if present, does not negate either of the things to be connected, but instead specifies that some other connection (logical or non-logical) is applicable: it is a scalar negation:

15.11)  mi jo'unai do cu remei
    I in-common-with [not!] you are-a-twosome

The result of ``mi jo'u do'' would be two individuals, not a mass, therefore ``jo'u'' is not applicable; ``joi'' would be the correct connective.

There is no joik question cmavo as such; however, joiks and ijoiks may be uttered in isolation in response to a logical connective question, as in the following exchange:

15.12)  do djica tu'a
        loi ckafi
        ji loi tcati
    You desire something-about
        a-mass-of coffee [what connective?]
        a-mass-of tea?
    Do you want coffee or tea?

15.13)   joi
    Mixed-mass-and.
    Both as a mass (i.e, mixed together).
Ugh. (Or in Lojban: .a'unaisairo'o.)