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

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

   du  GOhA            identity
The cmavo ``du'' has the place structure:
x1 is identical with x2, x3, ...
and appears in selma'o GOhA for reasons of convenience: it is not a pro-bridi. ``du'' serves as mathematical ``='', and outside mathematical contexts is used for defining or identifying. Mathematical examples may be found in Chapter 18.

The main difference between

14.1)    ko'a du le nanmu
    it-1 is-identical-to the man
and 
14.2)    ko'a mintu le nanmu
    it-1 is-the-same-as the man
is this defining nature. Example 14.1 presumes that the speaker is responding to a request for information about what ``ko'a'' refers to, or that the speaker in some way feels the need to define ``ko'a'' for later reference. A bridi with ``du'' is an identity sentence, somewhat metalinguistically saying that all attached sumti are representations for the same referent. There may be any number of sumti associated with ``du'', and all are said to be identical.

Example 14.2, however, predicates; it is used to make a claim about the identity of ``ko'a'', which presumably has been defined previously.

Note: ``du'' historically is derived from ``dunli'', but ``dunli'' has a third place which ``du'' lacks: the standard of equality.

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Pro-sumti and pro-bridi cancelling 		Brevity Is The Soul Of Language: Pro-sumti And Pro-bridi
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lujvo based on pro-sumti