Chapter 5. “Pretty Little Girls’ School”: The Structure Of Lojban selbri

5.1. Lojban content words: brivla

At the center, logically and often physically, of every Lojban bridi is one or more words which constitute the selbri. A bridi expresses a relationship between things: the selbri specifies which relationship is referred to. The difference between:

Example 5.1.

You are my mother

and

Example 5.2.

You are my father.

lies in the different selbri.

The simplest kind of selbri is a single Lojban content word: a brivla. There are three different varieties of brivla: those which are built into the language (the gismu), those which are derived from combinations of the gismu (the lujvo), and those which are taken (usually in a modified form) from other languages (the fu'ivla). In addition, there are a few cmavo that can act like brivla; these are mentioned in Section 5.9, and discussed in full in Chapter 7.

For the purposes of this chapter, however, all brivla are alike. For example,

Example 5.3.

That is a boat.

Example 5.4.

That is a ship.

Example 5.5.

That is a schooner.

illustrate the three types of brivla (gismu, lujvo, and fu'ivla respectively), but in each case the selbri is composed of a single word whose meaning can be learned independent of its origins.

The remainder of this chapter will mostly use gismu as example brivla, because they are short. However, it is important to keep in mind that wherever a gismu appears, it could be replaced by any other kind of brivla.

5.2. Simple tanru

Beyond the single brivla, a selbri may consist of two brivla placed together. When a selbri is built in this way from more than one brivla, it is called a tanru, a word with no single English equivalent. The nearest analogue to tanru in English are combinations of two nouns such as “lemon tree”. There is no way to tell just by looking at the phrase “lemon tree” exactly what it refers to, even if you know the meanings of “lemon” and “tree” by themselves. As English-speakers, we must simply know that it refers to “a tree which bears lemons as fruits”. A person who didn't know English very well might think of it as analogous to “brown tree” and wonder, “What kind of tree is lemon-colored?”

In Lojban, tanru are also used for the same purposes as English adjective-noun combinations like “big boy” and adverb-verb combinations like “quickly run”. This is a consequence of Lojban not having any such categories as “noun”, “verb”, “adjective”, or “adverb”. English words belonging to any of these categories are translated by simple brivla in Lojban. Here are some examples of tanru:

Example 5.6.

That is a lemon tree.

Example 5.7.

John is a big boy.

Example 5.8.

I quickly run./I run quickly.

Note that pelnimre is a lujvo for “lemon”; it is derived from the gismu pelxu , yellow, and nimre , citrus. Note also that sutra can mean “fast/quick” or “quickly” depending on its use:

Example 5.9.

shows sutra used to translate an adjective, whereas in Example 5.8 it is translating an adverb. (Another correct translation of Example 5.8, however, would be “I am a quick runner”.)

There are special Lojban terms for the two components of a tanru, derived from the place structure of the word tanru . The first component is called the seltau , and the second component is called the tertau .

The most important rule for use in interpreting tanru is that the tertau carries the primary meaning. A pelnimre tricu is primarily a tree, and only secondarily is it connected with lemons in some way. For this reason, an alternative translation of Example 5.6 would be:

Example 5.10.

That is a lemon type of tree.

This “type of” relationship between the components of a tanru is fundamental to the tanru concept.

We may also say that the seltau modifies the meaning of the tertau:

Example 5.11.

That is a tree which is lemon-ish (in the way appropriate to trees)

would be another possible translation of Example 5.6. In the same way, a more explicit translation of Example 5.7 might be:

Example 5.12.

John is a boy who is big in the way that boys are big.

This “way that boys are big” would be quite different from the way in which elephants are big; big-for-a-boy is small-for-an-elephant.

All tanru are ambiguous semantically. Possible translations of:

Example 5.13.

include:

• That is a table which goes (a wheeled table, perhaps).

• That is a table owned by one who goes.

• That is a table used by those who go (a sports doctor's table?).

• That is a table when it goes (otherwise it is a chair?).

In each case the object referred to is a “goer type of table”, but the ambiguous “type of” relationship can mean one of many things. A speaker who uses tanru (and pragmatically all speakers must) takes the risk of being misunderstood. Using tanru is convenient because they are short and expressive; the circumlocution required to squeeze out all ambiguity can require too much effort.

No general theory covering the meaning of all possible tanru exists; probably no such theory can exist. However, some regularities obviously do exist:

Example 5.14.

Example 5.15.

are parallel tanru, in the sense that the relationship between barda and prenu is the same as that between cmalu and prenu . Section 5.14 and Section 5.15 contain a partial listing of some types of tanru, with examples.

5.3. Three-part tanru grouping with bo

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

Consider the English sentence:

Example 5.16.

That's a little girls' school.

What does it mean? Two possible readings are:

Example 5.17.

That's a little school for girls.

Example 5.18.

That's a school for little girls.

This ambiguity is quite different from the simple tanru ambiguity described in Section 5.2. We understand that “girls' school” means “a school where girls are the students”, and not “a school where girls are the teachers” or “a school which is a girl” (!). Likewise, we understand that “little girl” means “girl who is small”. This is an ambiguity of grouping. Is “girls' school” to be taken as a unit, with “little” specifying the type of girls' school? Or is “little girl” to be taken as a unit, specifying the type of school? In English speech, different tones of voice, or exaggerated speech rhythm showing the grouping, are used to make the distinction; English writing usually leaves it unrepresented.

Lojban makes no use of tones of voice for any purpose; explicit words are used to do the work. The cmavo bo (which belongs to selma'o BO) may be placed between the two brivla which are most closely associated. Therefore, a Lojban translation of Example 5.17 would be:

Example 5.19.

Example 5.18 might be translated:

Example 5.20.

The bo is represented in the literal translation by a bracketed hyphen (not to be confused with the bare hyphen used as a placeholder in other glosses) because in written English a hyphen is sometimes used for the same purpose: “a big dog-catcher” would be quite different from a “big-dog catcher” (presumably someone who catches only big dogs).

Analysis of Example 5.19 and Example 5.20 reveals a tanru nested within a tanru. In Example 5.19, the main tanru has a seltau of cmalu and a tertau of nixli bo ckule; the tertau is itself a tanru with nixli as the seltau and ckule as the tertau. In Example 5.20, on the other hand, the seltau is cmalu bo nixli (itself a tanru), whereas the tertau is ckule . This structure of tanru nested within tanru forms the basis for all the more complex types of selbri that will be explained below.

What about Example 5.21? What does it mean?

Example 5.21.

The rules of Lojban do not leave this sentence ambiguous, as the rules of English do with Example 5.16. The choice made by the language designers is to say that Example 5.21 means the same as Example 5.20. This is true no matter what three brivla are used: the leftmost two are always grouped together. This rule is called the “left-grouping rule”. Left-grouping in seemingly ambiguous structures is quite common – though not universal – in other contexts in Lojban.

Another way to express the English meaning of Example 5.19 and Example 5.20, using parentheses to mark grouping, is:

Example 5.22.

Example 5.23.

Because “type-of” is implicit in the Lojban tanru form, it has no Lojban equivalent.

Note: It is perfectly legal, though pointless, to insert bo into a simple tanru:

Example 5.24.

is a legal Lojban bridi that means exactly the same thing as Example 5.13, and is ambiguous in exactly the same ways. The cmavo bo serves only to resolve grouping ambiguity: it says nothing about the more basic ambiguity present in all tanru.

5.4. Complex tanru grouping

If one element of a tanru can be another tanru, why not both elements?

Example 5.25.

You are a very large dog-catcher.

In Example 5.25, the selbri is a tanru with seltau mutce bo barda and tertau gerku bo kavbu. It is worth emphasizing once again that this tanru has the same fundamental ambiguity as all other Lojban tanru: the sense in which the “dog type-of capturer” is said to be “very type-of large” is not precisely specified. Presumably it is his body which is large, but theoretically it could be one of his other properties.

We will now justify the title of this chapter by exploring the ramifications of the phrase “pretty little girls' school”, an expansion of the tanru used in Section 5.3 to four brivla. (Although this example has been used in the Loglan Project almost since the beginning – it first appeared in Quine's book Word and Object (1960) – it is actually a mediocre example because of the ambiguity of English “pretty”; it can mean “beautiful”, the sense intended here, or it can mean “very”. Lojban melbi is not subject to this ambiguity: it means only “beautiful”.)

Here are four ways to group this phrase:

Example 5.26.

That is a school for girls who are beautifully small.

Example 5.27.

That is a girls' school which is beautifully small.

Example 5.28.

That is a school for small girls who are beautiful.

Example 5.29.

That is a small school for girls which is beautiful.

Example 5.29 uses a construction which has not been seen before: cmalu bo nixli bo ckule, with two consecutive uses of bo between brivla. The rule for multiple bo constructions is the opposite of the rule when no bo is present at all: the last two are grouped together. Not surprisingly, this is called the “right-grouping rule”, and it is associated with every use of bo in the language. Therefore,

Example 5.30.

means the same as Example 5.19, not Example 5.20. This rule may seem peculiar at first, but one of its consequences is that bo is never necessary between the first two elements of any of the complex tanru presented so far: all of Example 5.26 through Example 5.29 could have bo inserted between melbi and cmalu with no change in meaning.

5.5. Complex tanru with ke and ke'e

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

There is, in fact, a fifth grouping of “pretty little girls' school” that cannot be expressed with the resources explained so far. To handle it, we must introduce the grouping parentheses cmavo, ke and ke'e (belonging to selma'o KE and KEhE respectively). Any portion of a selbri sandwiched between these two cmavo is taken to be a single tanru component, independently of what is adjacent to it. Thus, Example 5.26 can be rewritten in any of the following ways:

Example 5.31.

Example 5.32.

Example 5.33.

Even more versions could be created simply by placing any number of ke cmavo at the beginning of the selbri, and a like number of ke'e cmavo at its end. Obviously, all of these are a waste of breath once the left-grouping rule has been grasped. However, the following is equivalent to Example 5.28 and may be easier to understand:

Example 5.34.

Likewise, a ke and ke'e version of Example 5.27 would be:

Example 5.35.

The final ke'e is given in square brackets here to indicate that it can be elided. It is always possible to elide ke'e at the end of the selbri, making Example 5.35 as terse as Example 5.27.

Now how about that fifth grouping? It is

Example 5.36.

That is a beautiful school for small girls.

Example 5.36 is distinctly different in meaning from any of Example 5.26 through Example 5.29. Note that within the ke … ke'e parentheses, the left-grouping rule is applied to cmalu nixli ckule.

It is perfectly all right to mix bo and ke … ke'e in a single selbri. For instance, Example 5.29, which in pure ke … ke'e form is

Example 5.37.

can equivalently be expressed as:

Example 5.38.

and in many other different forms as well.

5.6. Logical connection within tanru

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

Consider the English phrase “big red dog”. How shall this be rendered as a Lojban tanru? The naive attempt:

Example 5.39.

will not do, as it means a dog whose redness is big, in whatever way redness might be described as “big”. Nor is

Example 5.40.

much better. After all, the straightforward understanding of the English phrase is that the dog is big as compared with other dogs, not merely as compared with other red dogs. In fact, the bigness and redness are independent properties of the dog, and only obscure rules of English adjective ordering prevent us from saying “red big dog”.

The Lojban approach to this problem is to introduce the cmavo je , which is one of the many equivalents of English “and”. A big red dog is one that is both big and red, and we can say:

Example 5.41.

Of course,

Example 5.42.

is equally satisfactory and means the same thing. As these examples indicate, joining two brivla with je makes them a unit for tanru purposes. However, explicit grouping with bo or ke … ke'e associates brivla more closely than je does:

Example 5.43.

big yellowish-red dog

With no grouping indicators, we get:

Example 5.44.

biggish- and yellowish-red dog

which again raises the question of Example 5.39: what does “biggish-red” mean?

Unlike bo and ke … ke'e , je is useful as well as merely legal within simple tanru. It may be used to partly resolve the ambiguity of simple tanru:

Example 5.45.

definitely refers to something which is both blue and is a house, and not to any of the other possible interpretations of simple blanu zdani. Furthermore, blanu zdani refers to something which is blue in the way that houses are blue; blanu je zdani has no such implication – the blueness of a blanu je zdani is independent of its houseness.

With the addition of je , many more versions of “pretty little girls' school” are made possible: see Section 5.16 for a complete list.

A subtle point in the semantics of tanru like Example 5.41 needs special elucidation. There are at least two possible interpretations of:

Example 5.46.

It can be understood as:

Example 5.47.

That is a girls' school and a beautiful school.

or as:

Example 5.48.

That is a school for things which are both girls and beautiful.

The interpretation specified by Example 5.47 treats the tanru as a sort of abbreviation for:

Example 5.49.

whereas the interpretation specified by Example 5.48 does not. This is a kind of semantic ambiguity for which Lojban does not compel a firm resolution. The way in which the school is said to be of type “beautiful and girl” may entail that it is separately a beautiful school and a girls' school; but the alternative interpretation, that the members of the school are beautiful and girls, is also possible. Still another interpretation is:

Example 5.50.

That is a school for beautiful things and also for girls.

so while the logical connectives help to resolve the meaning of tanru, they by no means compel a single meaning in and of themselves.

In general, logical connectives within tanru cannot undergo the formal manipulations that are possible with the related logical connectives that exist outside tanru; see Section 14.12 for further details.

The logical connective je is only one of the fourteen logical connectives that Lojban provides. Here are a few examples of some of the others:

Example 5.51.

the runner(s) is/are winner(s) or loser(s).

Example 5.52.

skin which is blue only if it is cold

Example 5.53.

speech which is good if (and only if) it is short

Example 5.54.

speech which is important, whether or not it is pleasing

In Example 5.51, ja is grammatically equivalent to je but means “or” (more precisely, “and/or”). Likewise, naja means “only if” in Example 5.52, jo means “if and only if” in Example 5.53, and ju means “whether or not” in Example 5.54.

Now consider the following example:

Example 5.55.

which illustrates a new grammatical feature: the use of both ja and bo between tanru components. The two cmavo combine to form a compound whose meaning is that of ja but which groups more closely; ja bo is to ja as plain bo is to no cmavo at all. However, both ja and ja bo group less closely than bo does:

Example 5.56.

rich and (blue or greenish-blue)

An alternative form of Example 5.55 is:

Example 5.57.

In addition to the logical connectives, there are also a variety of non-logical connectives, grammatically equivalent to the logical ones. The only one with a well-understood meaning in tanru contexts is joi , which is the kind of “and” that denotes a mixture:

Example 5.58.

The ball described is neither solely red nor solely blue, but probably striped or in some other way exhibiting a combination of the two colors. Example 5.58 is distinct from:

Example 5.59.

This is a bluish-red ball

which would be a ball whose color is some sort of purple tending toward red, since xunre is the more important of the two components. On the other hand,

Example 5.60.

is probably self-contradictory, seeming to claim that the ball is independently both blue and red at the same time, although some sensible interpretation may exist.

Finally, just as English “and” has the variant form “both ... and”, so je between tanru components has the variant form gu'e … gi , where gu'e is placed before the components and gi between them:

Example 5.61.

is equivalent in meaning to Example 5.41. For each logical connective related to je , there is a corresponding connective related to gu'e … gi in a systematic way.

The portion of a gu'e … gi construction before the gi is a full selbri, and may use any of the selbri resources including je logical connections. After the gi , logical connections are taken to be wider in scope than the gu'e … gi , which has in effect the same scope as bo :

Example 5.62.

something which is either big, red, and a dog, or else a cat

leaves mlatu outside the gu'e … gi construction. The scope of the gi arm extends only to a single brivla or to two or more brivla connected with bo or ke … ke'e .

5.7. Linked sumti: be-bei-be'o

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

The question of the place structures of selbri has been glossed over so far. This chapter does not attempt to treat place structure issues in detail; they are discussed in Chapter 9. One grammatical structure related to places belongs here, however. In simple sentences such as Example 5.1, the place structure of the selbri is simply the defined place structure of the gismu mamta . What about more complex selbri?

For tanru, the place structure rule is simple: the place structure of a tanru is always the place structure of its tertau. Thus, the place structure of blanu zdani is that of zdani : the x1 place is a house or nest, and the x2 place is its occupants.

What about the places of blanu ? Is there any way to get them into the act? In fact, blanu has only one place, and this is merged, as it were, with the x1 place of zdani . It is whatever is in the x1 place that is being characterized as blue-for-a-house. But if we replace blanu with xamgu , we get:

Example 5.63.

This is a good (for someone, by some standard) house.

Since xamgu has three places (x1, the good thing; x2, the person for whom it is good; and x3, the standard of goodness), Example 5.63 necessarily omits information about the last two: there is no room for them. Room can be made, however!

Example 5.64.

This is a house that is good for you by my standards.

Here, the gismu xamgu has been followed by the cmavo be (of selma'o BE), which signals that one or more sumti follows. These sumti are not part of the overall bridi place structure, but fill the places of the brivla they are attached to, starting with x2. If there is more than one sumti, they are separated by the cmavo bei (of selma'o BEI), and the list of sumti is terminated by the elidable terminator be'o (of selma'o BEhO).

Grammatically, a brivla with sumti linked to it in this fashion plays the same role in tanru as a simple brivla. To illustrate, here is a fully fleshed-out version of Example 5.19, with all places filled in:

Example 5.65.

This is a school, small in volume compared to the typical school, pertaining to five-year-old girls (by American standards), in Brooklyn, teaching poetry to the New York community and operated by the state.

Here the three places of cmalu , the three of nixli , and the four of ckule are fully specified. Since the places of ckule are the places of the bridi as a whole, it was not necessary to link the sumti which follow ckule . It would have been legal to do so, however:

Example 5.66.

means the same as

Example 5.67.

No matter how complex a tanru gets, the last brivla always dictates the place structure: the place structure of

Example 5.68.

a school for girls which is both beautiful and small

is simply that of ckule . (The sole exception to this rule is discussed in Section 5.8.)

It is possible to precede linked sumti by the place structure ordering tags fe , fi , fo , and fu (of selma'o FA, discussed further in Section 9.3), which serve to explicitly specify the x2, x3, x4, and x5 places respectively. Normally, the place following the be is the x2 place and the other places follow in order. If it seems convenient to change the order, however, it can be accomplished as follows:

Example 5.69.

which is equivalent in meaning to Example 5.64. Note that the order of be , bei , and be'o does not change; only the inserted fi tells us that mi is the x3 place (and correspondingly, the inserted fe tells us that do is the x2 place). Changing the order of sumti is often done to match the order of another language, or for emphasis or rhythm.

Of course, using FA cmavo makes it easy to specify one place while omitting a previous place:

Example 5.70.

This is a good house by my standards.

Similarly, sumti labeled by modal or tense tags can be inserted into strings of linked sumti just as they can into bridi:

Example 5.71.

That is a blue, as I see it, house.

The meaning of Example 5.71 is slightly different from:

Example 5.72.

That is a blue house, as I see it.

See discussions in Chapter 9 of modals and in Chapter 10 of tenses for more explanations.

The terminator be'o is almost always elidable: however, if the selbri belongs to a description, then a relative clause following it will attach to the last linked sumti unless be'o is used, in which case it will attach to the outer description:

Example 5.73.

Example 5.74.

(Relative clauses are explained in Chapter 8.)

In other cases, however, be'o cannot be elided if ku has also been elided:

Example 5.75.

requires either ku or be'o , and since there is only one occurrence of be , the be'o must match it, whereas it may be confusing which occurrence of le the ku terminates (in fact the second one is correct).

5.8. Inversion of tanru: co

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

The standard order of Lojban tanru, whereby the modifier precedes what it modifies, is very natural to English-speakers: we talk of “blue houses”, not of “houses blue”. In other languages, however, such matters are differently arranged, and Lojban supports this reverse order (tertau before seltau) by inserting the particle co . Example 5.76 and Example 5.77 mean exactly the same thing:

Example 5.76.

That is a blue house.

Example 5.77.

That is a blue house.

This change is called “tanru inversion”. In tanru inversion, the element before co ( zdani in Example 5.77) is the tertau, and the element following co ( blanu ) in Example 5.77) is the seltau.

The meaning, and more specifically, the place structure, of a tanru is not affected by inversion: the place structure of zdani co blanu is still that of zdani . However, the existence of inversion in a selbri has a very special effect on any sumti which follow that selbri. Instead of being interpreted as filling places of the selbri, they actually fill the places (starting with x2) of the seltau. In Section 5.7, we saw how to fill interior places with be … bei … be'o , and in fact Example 5.78 and Example 5.79 have the same meaning:

Example 5.78.

I try to go to the market from the house.

Example 5.79.

I try to go to the market from the house.

Example 5.79 is a less deeply nested construction, requiring fewer cmavo. As a result it is probably easier to understand.

Note that in Lojban “trying to go” is expressed using troci as the tertau. The reason is that “trying to go” is a “going type of trying”, not a “trying type of going”. The trying is more fundamental than the going – if the trying fails, we may not have a going at all.

Any sumti which precede a selbri with an inverted tanru fill the places of the selbri (i.e., the places of the tertau) in the ordinary way. In Example 5.79, mi fills the x1 place of troci co klama, which is the x1 place of troci . The other places of the selbri remain unfilled. The trailing sumti le zarci and le zdani do not occupy selbri places, despite appearances.

As a result, the regular mechanisms (involving selma'o VOhA and GOhI, explained in Chapter 7) for referring to individual sumti of a bridi cannot refer to any of the trailing places of Example 5.79, because they are not really “sumti of the bridi” at all.

When inverting a more complex tanru, it is possible to invert it only at the most general modifier-modified pair. The only possible inversion of Example 5.19, for instance, is:

Example 5.80.

That's a girls' school which is small.

Note that the bo of Example 5.19 is optional in Example 5.80, because co groups more loosely than any other cmavo used in tanru, including none at all. Not even ke … ke'e parentheses can encompass a co :

Example 5.81.

That's a small school for girls which is beautiful.

In Example 5.81, the ke'e is automatically inserted before the co rather than at its usual place at the end of the selbri. As a result, there is a simple and mechanical rule for removing co from any selbri: change “A co B” to “ke B ke'e A”. (At the same time, any sumti following the selbri must be transformed into be … bei … be'o form and attached following B.) Therefore,

Example 5.82.

school for beautiful girls

means the same as:

Example 5.83.

Multiple co cmavo can appear within a selbri, indicating multiple inversions: a right-grouping rule is employed, as for bo . The above rule can be applied to interpret such selbri, but all co cmavo must be removed simultaneously:

Example 5.84.

becomes formally

Example 5.85.

which by the left-grouping rule is simply

Example 5.86.

school for little girls

As stated above, the selbri places, other than the first, of

Example 5.87.

I go quickly

cannot be filled by placing sumti after the selbri, because any sumti in that position fill the places of sutra , the seltau. However, the tertau places (which means in effect the selbri places) can be filled with be :

Example 5.88.

I go to the store quickly.

5.9. Other kinds of simple selbri

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

So far we have only discussed brivla and tanru built up from brivla as possible selbri. In fact, there are a few other constructions in Lojban which are grammatically equivalent to brivla: they can be used either directly as selbri, or as components in tanru. Some of these types of simple selbri are discussed at length in Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 18; but for completeness these types are mentioned here with a brief explanation and an example of their use in selbri.

The cmavo of selma'o GOhA (with one exception) serve as pro-bridi, providing a reference to the content of other bridi; none of them has a fixed meaning. The most commonly used member of GOhA is probably go'i , which amounts to a repetition of the previous bridi, or part of it. If I say:

Example 5.89.

you may retort:

Example 5.90.

John tries to.

Example 5.90 is short for:

Example 5.91.

because the whole bridi of Example 5.89 has been packaged up into the single word go'i and inserted into Example 5.90.

The exceptional member of GOhA is du , which represents the relation of identity. Its place structure is:

x1 is identical with x2, x3, ...

for as many places as are given. More information on selma'o GOhA is available in Chapter 7.

Lojban mathematical expressions (mekso) can be incorporated into selbri in two different ways. Mathematical operators such as su'i , meaning “plus”, can be transformed into selbri by prefixing them with nu'a (of selma'o NUhA). The resulting place structure is:

x1 is the result of applying (the operator) to arguments x2, x3, etc.

for as many arguments as are required. (The result goes in the x1 place because the number of following places may be indefinite.) For example:

Example 5.92.

A possible tanru example might be:

Example 5.93.

I understand addition problems.

More usefully, it is possible to combine a mathematical expression with a cmavo of selma'o MOI to create one of various numerical selbri. Details are available in Section 18.11. Here are a few tanru:

Example 5.94.

Preem Palver is the first speaker.

Example 5.95.

Anyi and Asun are two brothers.

Finally, an important type of simple selbri which is not a brivla is the abstraction. Grammatically, abstractions are simple: a cmavo of selma'o NU, followed by a bridi, followed by the elidable terminator kei of selma'o KEI. Semantically, abstractions are an extremely subtle and powerful feature of Lojban whose full ramifications are documented in Chapter 11. A few examples:

Example 5.96.

This is an amusement room.

Example 5.96 is quite distinct in meaning from:

Example 5.97.

which suggests the meaning “a room that amuses someone”.

5.10. selbri based on sumti: me

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

A sumti can be made into a simple selbri by preceding it with me (of selma'o ME) and following it with the elidable terminator me'u (of selma'o MEhU). This makes a selbri with the place structure

x1 is one of the referents of “[the sumti]”

which is true of the thing, or things, that are the referents of the sumti, and not of anything else. For example, consider the sumti

Example 5.98.

the three kings

If these are understood to be the Three Kings of Christian tradition, who arrive every year on January 6, then we may say:

Example 5.99.

Balthazar is one of the three kings.

and likewise

Example 5.100.

Caspar is one of the three kings.

and

Example 5.101.

Melchior is one of the three kings.

If the sumti refers to a single object, then the effect of me is much like that of du :

Example 5.102.

You are John.

means the same as

Example 5.103.

You are John.

It is common to use me selbri, especially those based on name sumti using la , as seltau. For example:

Example 5.104.

That is a Chrysler car.

The elidable terminator me'u can usually be omitted. It is absolutely required only if the me selbri is being used in an indefinite description (a type of sumti explained in Section 6.8), and if the indefinite description is followed by a relative clause (explained in Chapter 8) or a sumti logical connective (explained in Section 14.6). Without a me'u , the relative clause or logical connective would appear to belong to the sumti embedded in the me expression. Here is a contrasting pair of sentences:

Example 5.105.

Two of the group “the three kings and John” are white.

Example 5.106.

Two of the three kings, and John, are white.

In Example 5.105 the me selbri covers the three kings plus John, and the indefinite description picks out two of them that are said to be white: we cannot say which two. In Example 5.106, though, the me selbri covers only the three kings: two of them are said to be white, and so is John.

Finally, here is another example requiring me'u :

Example 5.107.

That is the kind of book you were talking about.

There are other sentences where either me'u or some other elidable terminator must be expressed:

Example 5.108.

the Three Kings celebration

requires either ku or me'u to be explicit, and (as with be'o in Section 5.7) the me'u leaves no doubt which cmavo it is paired with.

5.11. Conversion of simple selbri

Conversion is the process of changing a selbri so that its places appear in a different order. This is not the same as labeling the sumti with the cmavo of FA, as mentioned in Section 5.7, and then rearranging the order in which the sumti are spoken or written. Conversion transforms the selbri into a distinct, though closely related, selbri with renumbered places.

In Lojban, conversion is accomplished by placing a cmavo of selma'o SE before the selbri:

Example 5.109.

I love you.

is equivalent in meaning to:

Example 5.110.

You are loved by me.

Conversion is fully explained in Section 9.4. For the purposes of this chapter, the important point about conversion is that it applies only to the following simple selbri. When trying to convert a tanru, therefore, it is necessary to be careful! Consider Example 5.111:

Example 5.111.

Alice walks to the market.

To convert this sentence so that le zarci is in the x1 place, one correct way is:

Example 5.112.

The ke … ke'e brackets cause the entire tanru to be converted by the se , which would otherwise convert only cadzu , leading to:

Example 5.113.

whatever that might mean. An alternative approach, since the place structure of cadzu klama is that of klama alone, is to convert only the latter:

Example 5.114.

But the tanru in Example 5.114 may or may not have the same meaning as that in Example 5.111; in particular, because cadzu is not converted, there is a suggestion that although Alice is the goer, the market is the walker. With a different sumti as x1, this seemingly odd interpretation might make considerable sense:

Example 5.115.

suggests that Alice is going to John, who is a moving target.

There is an alternative type of conversion, using the cmavo jai of selma'o JAI optionally followed by a modal or tense construction. Grammatically, such a combination behaves exactly like conversion using SE. More details can be found in Section 9.12.

5.12. Scalar negation of selbri

Negation is too large and complex a topic to explain fully in this chapter; see Chapter 15. In brief, there are two main types of negation in Lojban. This section is concerned with so-called “scalar negation”, which is used to state that a true relation between the sumti is something other than what the selbri specifies. Scalar negation is expressed by cmavo of selma'o NAhE:

Example 5.116.

Alice doesn't walk to the market.

meaning that Alice's relationship to the market is something other than that of walking there. But if the ke were omitted, the result would be:

Example 5.117.

Alice doesn't walk to the market.

meaning that Alice does go there in some way ( klama is not negated), but by a means other than that of walking. Example 5.116 negates both cadzu and klama , suggesting that Alice's relation to the market is something different from walkingly-going; it might be walking without going, or going without walking, or neither.

Of course, any of the simple selbri types explained in Section 5.9 may be used in place of brivla in any of these examples:

Example 5.118.

Jones is not the first speaker.

Since only pamoi is negated, an appropriate inference is that he is some other kind of speaker.

Here is an assortment of more complex examples showing the interaction of scalar negation with bo grouping, ke and ke'e grouping, logical connection, and sumti linked with be and bei :

Example 5.119.

I go to the market, walking using my arms other than quickly.

In Example 5.119, na'e negates only sutra . Contrast Example 5.120:

Example 5.120.

I go to the market, other than by walking quickly on my arms.

Now consider Example 5.121 and Example 5.122, which are equivalent in meaning, but use ke grouping and bo grouping respectively:

Example 5.121.

I go to the market, both quickly walking using my arms and slowly.

Example 5.122.

I go to the market, both quickly walking using my arms and slowly.

However, if we place a na'e at the beginning of the selbri in both Example 5.121 and Example 5.122, we get different results:

Example 5.123.

I go to the market, both walking using my arms other than quickly, and also slowly.

Example 5.124.

I go to the market, both other than quickly walking using my arms, and also slowly.

The difference arises because the na'e in Example 5.124 negates the whole construction from ke to ke'e , whereas in Example 5.123 it negates sutra alone.

Beware of omitting terminators in these complex examples! If the explicit ke'e is left out in Example 5.124, it is transformed into:

Example 5.125.

I do something other than quickly both going to the market walking using my arms and slowly going to the market.

And if both ke'e and be'o are omitted, the results are even sillier:

Example 5.126.

I do something other than quickly walking using the goers, both arm-type and slow, relative-to the market.

In Example 5.126, everything after be is a linked sumti, so the place structure is that of cadzu , whose x2 place is the surface walked upon. It is less than clear what an “arm-type goer” might be. Furthermore, since the x3 place has been occupied by the linked sumti, the le zarci following the selbri falls into the nonexistent x4 place of cadzu . As a result, the whole example, though grammatical, is complete nonsense. (The bracketed Lojban words appear where a fluent Lojbanist would understand them to be implied.)

Finally, it is also possible to place na'e before a gu'e … gi logically connected tanru construction. The meaning of this usage has not yet been firmly established.

5.13. Tenses and bridi negation

A bridi can have cmavo associated with it which specify the time, place, or mode of action. For example, in

Example 5.127.

I went to the market.

the cmavo pu specifies that the action of the speaker going to the market takes place in the past. Tenses are explained in full detail in Chapter 10. Tense is semantically a property of the entire bridi; however, the usual syntax for tenses attaches them at the front of the selbri, as in Example 5.127. There are alternative ways of expressing tense information as well. Modals, which are explained in Chapter 9, behave in the same way as tenses.

Similarly, a bridi may have the particle na (of selma'o NA) attached to the beginning of the selbri to negate the bridi. A negated bridi expresses what is false without saying anything about what is true. Do not confuse this usage with the scalar negation of Section 5.12. For example:

Example 5.128.

It is not true that Jones is the first speaker.
Jones isn't the first speaker.

Jones may be the second speaker, or not a speaker at all; Example 5.128 doesn't say. There are other ways of expressing bridi negation as well; the topic is explained fully in Chapter 15.

Various combinations of tense and bridi negation cmavo are permitted. If both are expressed, either order is permissible with no change in meaning:

Example 5.129.

It is false that I went to the market.
I didn't go to the market.

It is also possible to have more than one na , in which case pairs of na cmavo cancel out:

Example 5.130.

It is false that it is false that I go to the market.
I go to the market.

It is even possible, though somewhat pointless, to have multiple na cmavo and tense cmavo mixed together, subject to the limitation that two adjacent tense cmavo will be understood as a compound tense, and must fit the grammar of tenses as explained in Chapter 10.

Example 5.131.

It is not the case that in the past it was not the case that in the present I went to the market.
I didn't not go to the market.
I went to the market.

Tense, modal, and negation cmavo can appear only at the beginning of the selbri. They cannot be embedded within it.

5.14. Some types of asymmetrical tanru

This section and Section 5.15 contain some example tanru classified into groups based on the type of relationship between the modifying seltau and the modified tertau. All the examples are paralleled by compounds actually observed in various natural languages. In the tables which follow, each group is preceded by a brief explanation of the relationship. The tables themselves contain a tanru, a literal gloss, an indication of the languages which exhibit a compound analogous to this tanru, and (for those tanru with no English parallel) a translation.

Here are the 3-letter abbreviations used for the various languages (it is presumed to be obvious whether a compound is found in English or not, so English is not explicitly noted):

Any lujvo or fu'ivla used in a group are glossed at the end of that group.

The tanru discussed in this section are asymmetrical tanru; that is, ones in which the order of the terms is fundamental to the meaning of the tanru. For example, junla dadysli, or “clock pendulum”, is the kind of pendulum used in a clock, whereas dadysli junla, or “pendulum clock”, is the kind of clock that employs a pendulum. Most tanru are asymmetrical in this sense. Symmetrical tanru are discussed in Section 5.15.

The tertau represents an action, and the seltau then represents the object of that action:

Table 5.1. Example tanru

Table 5.2. Mini-Glossary

The tertau represents a set, and the seltau the type of the elements contained in that set:

Table 5.3. Example tanru

Table 5.4. Mini-Glossary

Conversely: the tertau is an element, and the seltau represents a set in which that element is contained. Implicitly, the meaning of the tertau is restricted from its usual general meaning to the specific meaning appropriate for elements in the given set. Note the opposition between zdani linji in the previous group, and linji zdani in this one, which shows why this kind of tanru is called “asymmetrical”.

Table 5.5. Example tanru

The seltau specifies an object and the tertau a component or detail of that object; the tanru as a whole refers to the detail, specifying that it is a detail of that whole and not some other.

Table 5.6. Example tanru

Table 5.7. Mini-Glossary

Conversely: the seltau specifies a characteristic or important detail of the object described by the tertau; objects described by the tanru as a whole are differentiated from other similar objects by this detail.

Table 5.8. Example tanru

Table 5.9. Mini-Glossary

The tertau specifies a general class of object (a genus), and the seltau specifies a sub-class of that class (a species):

Table 5.10. Example tanru

The tertau specifies an object of possession, and the seltau may specify the possessor (the possession may be intrinsic or otherwise). In English, these compounds have an explicit possessive element in them: “lion's mane”, “child's foot”, “noble's cow”.

Table 5.11. Example tanru

Table 5.12. Mini-Glossary

The tertau specifies a habitat, and the seltau specifies the inhabitant:

Table 5.13. Example tanru

The tertau specifies a causative agent, and the seltau specifies the effect of that cause:

Table 5.14. Example tanru

Table 5.15. Mini-Glossary

Conversely: the tertau specifies an effect, and the seltau specifies its cause.

Table 5.16. Example tanru

The tertau specifies an instrument, and the seltau specifies the purpose of that instrument:

Table 5.17. Example tanru

Table 5.18. Mini-Glossary

More vaguely: the tertau specifies an instrument, and the seltau specifies the object of the purpose for which that instrument is used:

Table 5.19. Example tanru

The tertau specifies a product from some source, and the seltau specifies the source of the product:

Table 5.20. Example tanru

Table 5.21. Mini-Glossary

Conversely: the tertau specifies the source of a product, and the seltau specifies the product:

Table 5.22. Example tanru

Table 5.23. Mini-Glossary

The tertau specifies an object, and the seltau specifies the material from which the object is made. This case is especially interesting, because the referent of the tertau may normally be made from just one kind of material, which is then overridden in the tanru.

Table 5.24. Example tanru

Table 5.25. Mini-Glossary

Note: the two senses of blaci kanla can be discriminated as:

Table 5.26. Example tanru

The tertau specifies a typical object used to measure a quantity and the seltau specifies something measured. The tanru as a whole refers to a given quantity of the thing being measured. English does not have compounds of this form, as a rule.

Table 5.27. Example tanru

Table 5.28. Mini-Glossary

The tertau specifies an object with certain implicit properties, and the seltau overrides one of those implicit properties:

Table 5.29. Example tanru

The seltau specifies a whole, and the tertau specifies a part which normally is associated with a different whole. The tanru then refers to a part of the seltau which stands in the same relationship to the whole seltau as the tertau stands to its typical whole.

Table 5.30. Example tanru

The tertau specifies the producer of a certain product, and the seltau specifies the product. In this way, the tanru as a whole distinguishes its referents from other referents of the tertau which do not produce the product.

Table 5.31. Example tanru

The tertau specifies an object, and the seltau specifies another object which has a characteristic property. The tanru as a whole refers to those referents of the tertau which possess the property.

Table 5.32. Example tanru

Table 5.33. Mini-Glossary

As a particular case (when the property is that of resemblance): the seltau specifies an object which the referent of the tanru resembles.

Table 5.34. Example tanru

Table 5.35. Mini-Glossary

The seltau specifies a place, and the tertau an object characteristically located in or at that place.

Table 5.36. Example tanru

Table 5.37. Mini-Glossary

Specifically: the tertau is a place where the seltau is sold or made available to the public.

Table 5.38. Example tanru

The seltau specifies the locus of application of the tertau.

Table 5.39. Example tanru

Table 5.40. Mini-Glossary

The tertau specifies an implement used in the activity denoted by the seltau.

Table 5.41. Example tanru

The tertau specifies a protective device against the undesirable features of the referent of the seltau.

Table 5.42. Example tanru

Table 5.43. Mini-Glossary

The tertau specifies a container characteristically used to hold the referent of the seltau.

Table 5.44. Example tanru

Table 5.45. Mini-Glossary

The seltau specifies the characteristic time of the event specified by the tertau.

Table 5.46. Example tanru

The seltau specifies a source of energy for the referent of the tertau.

Table 5.47. Example tanru

Table 5.48. Mini-Glossary

Finally, some tanru which don't fall into any of the above categories.

Table 5.49. Example tanru

It is clear that “tooth” is being specified, and that “milk” and “eye” act as modifiers. However, the relationship between ladru and denci is something like “tooth which one has when one is drinking milk from one's mother”, a relationship certainly present nowhere except in this particular concept. As for kanla denci, the relationship is not only not present on the surface, it is hardly possible to formulate it at all.

5.15. Some types of symmetrical tanru

This section deals with symmetrical tanru, where order is not important. Many of these tanru can be expressed with a logical or non-logical connective between the components.

The tanru may refer to things which are correctly specified by both tanru components. Some of these instances may also be seen as asymmetrical tanru where the seltau specifies a material. The connective je is appropriate:

Table 5.50. Example tanru

Table 5.51. Mini-Glossary

The tanru may refer to all things which are specified by either of the tanru components. The connective ja is appropriate:

Table 5.52. Example tanru

Table 5.53. Mini-Glossary

Alternatively, the tanru may refer to things which are specified by either of the tanru components or by some more inclusive class of things which the components typify:

Table 5.54. Example tanru

The tanru components specify crucial or typical parts of the referent of the tanru as a whole:

Table 5.55. Example tanru

Table 5.56. Mini-Glossary

5.16. “Pretty little girls' school”: forty ways to say it

The following examples show every possible grouping arrangement of melbi cmalu nixli ckule using bo or ke … ke'e for grouping and je or je bo for logical connection. Most of these are definitely not plausible interpretations of the English phrase “pretty little girls' school”, especially those which describe something which is both a girl and a school.

Example 5.26, Example 5.27, Example 5.28, Example 5.29, and Example 5.36 are repeated here as Example 5.132, Example 5.140, Example 5.148, Example 5.156, and Example 5.164 respectively. The seven examples following each of these share the same grouping pattern, but differ in the presence or absence of je at each possible site. Some of the examples have more than one Lojban version. In that case, they differ only in grouping mechanism, and are always equivalent in meaning.

The logical connective je is associative: that is, “A and (B and C)” is the same as “(A and B) and C”. Therefore, some of the examples have the same meaning as others. In particular, Example 5.139, Example 5.147, Example 5.155, Example 5.163, and Example 5.171 all have the same meaning because all four brivla are logically connected and the grouping is simply irrelevant. Other equivalent forms are noted in the examples themselves. However, if je were replaced by naja or jo or most of the other logical connectives, the meanings would become distinct.

It must be emphasized that, because of the ambiguity of all tanru, the English translations are by no means definitive – they represent only one possible interpretation of the corresponding Lojban sentence.

Example 5.132.

school for girls who are beautifully small

Example 5.133.

school for girls who are beautiful and small

Example 5.134.

school for girls and for beautifully small things

Example 5.135.

thing which is a school and a beautifully small girl

Example 5.136.

school for things which are beautiful, small, and girls
Note: same as Example 5.152

Example 5.137.

thing which is beautifully small, a school, and a girl
Note: same as Example 5.145

Example 5.138.

thing which is a school and a girl who is both beautiful and small

Example 5.139.

thing which is beautiful, small, a girl, and a school

Example 5.140.

girls' school which is beautifully small

Example 5.141.

girls' school which is beautiful and small

Example 5.142.

something which is a girl and a school which is beautifully small

Example 5.143.

something which is beautifully small and a girls' school

Example 5.144.

a pretty and little type of thing which is both a girl and a school

Example 5.145.

thing which is beautifully small, a school, and a girl

Note: same as Example 5.137

Example 5.146.

thing which is beautiful and small and a girl's school

Note: same as Example 5.161

Example 5.147.

thing which is beautiful, small, a girl, and a school

Example 5.148.

school for beautiful girls who are small

Example 5.149.

school for beautiful things which are small and are girls

Example 5.150.

school for things which are beautiful and are small girls

Example 5.151.

thing which is a school and a small girl who is beautiful

Example 5.152.

school for things which are beautiful, small, and girls

Note: same as Example 5.136

Example 5.153.

thing which is beautiful, a small girl, and a school

Note: same as Example 5.169

Example 5.154.

thing which is beautifully small, a beautiful girl, and a school

Example 5.155.

thing which is beautiful, small, a girl, and a school

Example 5.156.

small school for girls which is beautiful

Example 5.157.

small thing, both a girl and a school, which is beautiful

Example 5.158.

thing which is beautifully small and a girls' school that is beautiful

Example 5.159.

thing which is beautiful and a small type of girls' school

Example 5.160.

thing which is beautifully small, a beautiful girl, and a beautiful school

Note: same as Example 5.168

Example 5.161.

thing which is beautiful, small and a girls' school

Note: same as Example 5.146

Example 5.162.

beautiful thing which is a small girl and a small school

Example 5.163.

thing which is beautiful, small, a girl, and a school

Example 5.164.

beautiful school for small girls

Example 5.165.

beautiful school for things which are small and are girls

Example 5.166.

beautiful thing which is a small girl and a school

Example 5.167.

thing which is beautiful and a school for small girls

Example 5.168.

thing which is beautifully small, a beautiful girl, and a beautiful school

Note: same as Example 5.160

Example 5.169.

thing which is beautiful, a small girl and a school

Note: same as Example 5.153

Example 5.170.

thing which is beautiful and is a small school and a girls' school

Example 5.171.

thing which is beautiful, small, a girl, and a school