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

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.

do	mamta	mi
You	are-a-mother-of	me

You are my mother

and

Example 5.2.

do	patfu	mi
You	are-a-father-of	me.

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.

ta	bloti
That	is-a-boat.

That is a boat.

Example 5.4.

ta	brablo
That	is-a-large-boat.

That is a ship.

Example 5.5.

ta	blotrskunri
That	is-a-(boat)-schooner.

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.

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.

tu	pelnimre	tricu
That-yonder	is-a-lemon	tree.

That is a lemon tree.

Example 5.7.

la	djan.	barda	nanla
That-named	John	is-a-big	boy.

John is a big boy.

Example 5.8.

mi	sutra	bajra
I	quick	run

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.

mi	sutra
I	am-fast/quick

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.

ta	klama	jubme
That	is-a-goer	type-of-table.

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.

do	barda	prenu
You	are-a-large	person.

Example 5.15.

do	cmalu	prenu
You	are-a-small	person.

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.

Three-part tanru grouping with bo

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

bo	BO	closest scope grouping

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.

ta	cmalu	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-small	girl	-	school.

Example 5.18 might be translated:

Example 5.20.

ta	cmalu	bo	nixli	ckule
That	is-a-small	-	girl	school.

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.

ta	cmalu	nixli	ckule
That	is-a-small	girl	school.

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.

ta	cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-small	type-of	(girl	type-of	school).

Example 5.23.

ta	cmalu	bo	nixli		ckule
That	is-a-(small	type-of	girl)	type-of	school.

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.

ta	klama	bo	jubme
That	is-a-goer	-	table.

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.

Complex tanru grouping

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

Example 5.25.

do	mutce	bo	barda	gerku	bo	kavbu
You	are-a-(very	type-of	large)	(dog	type-of	capturer).

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.

ta	melbi		cmalu		nixli		ckule
That	is-a-((pretty	type-of	little)	type-of	girl)	type-of	school.

That is a school for girls who are beautifully small.

Example 5.27.

ta	melbi		cmalu	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-(pretty	type-of	little)	(girl	type-of	school).

That is a girls’ school which is beautifully small.

Example 5.28.

ta	melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli		ckule
That	is-a-(pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	girl))	type-of	school.

That is a school for small girls who are beautiful.

Example 5.29.

ta	melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	(girl	type-of	school)).

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.

ta	cmalu	bo	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-little	type-of	(girl	type-of	school).

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.

Complex tanru with ke and ke’e

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

ke	KE	start grouping
ke’e	KEhE	end grouping

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.

ta	ke	melbi	cmalu	ke’e	nixli	ckule
That	is-a-(	pretty	little	)	girl	school.

Example 5.32.

ta	ke	ke	melbi	cmalu	ke’e	nixli	ke’e	ckule
That	is-a-(	(	pretty	little	)	girl	)	school.

Example 5.33.

ta	ke	ke	ke	melbi	cmalu	ke’e	nixli	ke’e	ckule	ke’e
That	is-a-(	(	(	pretty	little	)	girl	)	school	).

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.

ta		melbi		ke	cmalu		nixli	ke’e			ckule
That	is-a-(	pretty	type-of	(	little	type-of	girl	)	)	type-of	school.

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

Example 5.35.

ta	melbi		cmalu	ke	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]
That	is-a-(pretty	type-of	little)	(	girl	type-of	school	).

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.

ta	melbi		ke		cmalu		nixli			ckule	[ke’e]
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(	(	little	type-of	girl	)	type-of	school	).

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’e parentheses, the left-grouping rule is applied to cmalu nixli ckule.

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

Example 5.37.

ta	melbi		ke	cmalu
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(	little

	ke	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]	[ke’e]
type-of	(	girl	type-of	school	)	).

can equivalently be expressed as:

Example 5.38.

ta	melbi		ke	cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule	[ke’e]
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(	little	type-of-(	girl	type-of	school	)).

and in many other different forms as well.

Logical connection within tanru

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

je	JA	tanru logical “and”
ja	JA	tanru logical “or”
joi	JOI	mixed mass “and”
gu’e	GUhA	tanru forethought logical “and”
gi	GI	forethought connection separator

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

Example 5.39.

barda		xunre		gerku
(big	type-of	red)	type-of	dog

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.

barda		xunre	bo	gerku
big	type-of	(red	type-of	dog)

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.

barda	je	xunre		gerku
(big	and	red)	type-of	dog

Of course,

Example 5.42.

xunre	je	barda		gerku
(red	and	big)	type-of	dog

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’e associates brivla more closely than je does:

Example 5.43.

barda	je	pelxu	bo	xunre	gerku
(big	and	(yellow	type-of	red))	dog

barda	je	ke	pelxu		xunre	ke’e	gerku
(big	and	(	yellow	type-of	red)	)	dog

big yellowish-red dog

With no grouping indicators, we get:

Example 5.44.

barda	je	pelxu		xunre		gerku
((big	and	yellow)	type-of	red)	type-of	dog

biggish- and yellowish-red dog

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

Unlike bo and 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.

ta	blanu	je	zdani
that	is-blue	and	is-a-house

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.

ta	melbi	je	nixli		ckule
That	is-a-(beautiful	and	girl)	type-of	school.

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.

ta	ke	melbi		ckule	ke’e	je	ke	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]
That	is-a-(	beautiful	type-of	school	)	and	(	girl	type-of	school	)

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.

le	bajra	cu	jinga	ja	te	jinga

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

Example 5.52.

blanu	naja	lenku	skapi
(blue	only-if	cold)	skin

skin which is blue only if it is cold

Example 5.53.

xamgu	jo	tordu	nuntavla
(good	if-and-only-if	short)	speech

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

Example 5.54.

vajni	ju	pluka	nuntavla
(important	whether-or-not	pleasing)	event-of-talking

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.

ricfu	je	blanu	jabo	crino
rich	and	(blue	or	green)

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; bo is to ja as plain bo is to no cmavo at all. However, both ja and bo group less closely than bo does:

Example 5.56.

ricfu	je	blanu	jabo	crino	bo	blanu
rich	and	(blue	or	green	-	blue)

rich and (blue or greenish-blue)

An alternative form of Example 5.55 is:

Example 5.57.

ricfu	je	ke	blanu	ja	crino	[ke’e]
rich	and	(	blue	or	green	)

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.

ti	blanu	joi	xunre	bolci
This	is-a-(blue	and	red)	ball.

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.

ti	blanu	xunre	bolci

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.

ti	blanu	je	xunre	bolci
This	is-a-(blue	and	red)	ball

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 gi, where gu’e is placed before the components and gi between them:

Example 5.61.

gu’e	barda	gi	xunre		gerku
(both	big	and	red)	type-of	dog

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

The portion of a 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 gi, which has in effect the same scope as bo:

Example 5.62.

gu’e	barda	je	xunre	gi	gerku	ja	mlatu
(both	(big	and	red)	and	dog)	or	cat

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

leaves mlatu outside the 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’e.

Linked sumti: be-bei-be’o

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

be	BE	linked sumti marker
bei	BEI	linked sumti separator
be’o	BEhO	linked sumti terminator

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.

ti	xamgu	zdani
This	is-a-good	house.

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.

ti	xamgu	be	do	bei	mi	[be’o]	zdani
This	is-a-good	(for	you	by-standard	me)		house.

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.

ti	cmalu	be	le	ka	canlu
This	is-a-small	(in-dimension	the	property-of	volume

bei	lo’e	ckule	be’o
by-standard	the-typical	school)

nixli	be	li	mu
(girl	(of-years	the-number	five

bei	lo	merko	be’o	bo	ckule
by-standard	some	American-thing)			school)

la	bryklyn.
in-that-named	Brooklyn

loi	pemci
with-subject	poems

le	mela	nu,IORK.	prenu
for-audience-the	among-that-named	New-York	persons

le	jecta
with-operator-the	state.

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.

mi	klama	be	le	zarci	bei	le	zdani	[be’o]
I	go	(	to-the	market		from-the	house	).

means the same as

Example 5.67.

mi	klama	le	zarci	le	zdani
I	go	to-the	market	from-the	house.

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

Example 5.68.

	melbi	je	cmalu	nixli	bo	ckule
a	(pretty	and	little)	(girl		school)

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.

ti	xamgu	be	fi	mi	bei	fe	do	[be’o]	zdani
This	is-a-good	(	by-standard	me		for	you	)	house.

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.

ti	xamgu	be	fi	mi	[be’o]	zdani
This	is-a-good	(	by-standard	me	)	house.

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.

ta	blanu	be	ga’a	mi	[be’o]	zdani
That	is-a-blue	(	to-observer	me	)	house.

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

The meaning of Example 5.71 is slightly different from:

Example 5.72.

ta	blanu	zdani	ga’a	mi
That	is-a-blue	house	to-observer	me.

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.

le	xamgu	be	do	noi	barda	cu	zdani
The	good-thing	for	you	(who	are-large)		is-a-house.

Example 5.74.

le	xamgu	be	do	be’o	noi	barda	cu	zdani
The	(good-thing	for	you	)	(which	is-large)		is-a-house

(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.

le	xamgu	be	le	ctuca	[ku]	be’o	zdani
the	good	(for	the	teacher)			house

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).

Inversion of tanru: co

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

co	CO	tanru inversion marker

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.

ta	blanu	zdani
That	is-a-blue	type-of-house.

That is a blue house.

Example 5.77.

ta	zdani	co	blanu
That	is-a-house	of-type	blue.

That is a blue house.

This change is called “tanru inversion”. In tanru inversion, the element before zdani in Example 5.77) is the tertau, and the element following 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’o, and in fact Example 5.78 and Example 5.79 have the same meaning:

Example 5.78.

mi	klama	be	le	zarci	bei	le	zdani	be’o	troci
I	am-a-(goer	to	the	market	from	the	house	)	type-of-trier.

I try to go to the market from the house.

Example 5.79.

mi	troci	co	klama	le	zarci	le	zdani
I	am-a-trier	of-type	(goer	to-the	market	from-the	house).

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.

ta	nixli	[bo]	ckule	co	cmalu
That	(is-a-girl	type-of	school)	of-type	little.

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’e parentheses can encompass a co:

Example 5.81.

ta	cmalu		ke	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]	co	melbi
That	is-a-(little	type-of	(	girl	type-of	school	))	of-type	pretty.

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’o form and attached following B.) Therefore,

Example 5.82.

ckule	co	melbi	nixli
school	of-type	pretty	girl

school for beautiful girls

means the same as:

Example 5.83.

ke	melbi	nixli	ke’e	ckule
(	pretty	girl	)	school

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.

ckule	co	nixli	co	cmalu
school	of-type	(girl	of-type	little)

becomes formally

Example 5.85.

ke	ke	cmalu	ke’e	nixli	ke’e	ckule
(	(	little	)	girl	)	school

which by the left-grouping rule is simply

Example 5.86.

cmalu	nixli	ckule
little	girl	school

school for little girls

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

Example 5.87.

mi	klama	co	sutra
I	am-a-goer	of-type	quick

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.

mi	klama	be	le	zarci	be’o	co	sutra
I	am-a-goer	(	to-the	store	)	of-type	quick.

I go to the store quickly.

Other kinds of simple selbri

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

go’i	GOhA	repeats the previous bridi
du	GOhA	equality
nu’a	NUhA	math operator to selbri
moi	MOI	changes number to ordinal selbri
mei	MOI	changes number to cardinal selbri
nu	NU	event abstraction
kei	KEI	terminator for NU

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.

la	djan.	klama	le	zarci
That-named	John	goes-to	the	market.

you may retort:

Example 5.90.

la	djan.	go’i	troci
That-named	John	[repeat-last]	are-a-trier.

John tries to.

Example 5.90 is short for:

Example 5.91.

la	djan.	klama	be	le	zarci	be’o		troci
That-named	John	is-a-goer	(	to-the	market	)	type-of	trier.

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.

li	vo	nu’a su’i	li	re	li	re
The-number	4	is-the-sum-of	the-number	2	and-the-number	2.

A possible tanru example might be:

Example 5.93.

mi	jimpe	tu’a	loi	nu’a su’i	nabmi
I	understand	something-about	the-mass-of	is-the-sum-of	problems.

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.

la	prim.	palvr.	pamoi	cusku
That-named	Preem	Palver	is-the-1-th	speaker.

Preem Palver is the first speaker.

Example 5.95.

la	an,iis.	joi	la	.asun.
That-named	Anyi	massed-with	that-named	Asun

bruna	remei
are-a-brother	type-of-twosome.

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.

ti	nu	zdile	kei	kumfa
This	is-an-event-of	amusement		room.

This is an amusement room.

Example 5.96 is quite distinct in meaning from:

Example 5.97.

ti	zdile	kumfa
This	is-an-amuser	room.

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

selbri based on sumti: me

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

me	ME	changes sumti to simple selbri
me’u	MEhU	terminator for me

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.

le	ci	nolraitru
the	three	noblest-governors

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.

la	BALtazar.	cu	me	le ci nolraitru
That-named	Balthazar		is-one-of-the-referents-of	“the three kings.”

Balthazar is one of the three kings.

and likewise

Example 5.100.

la	kaspar.	cu	me	le	ci	nolraitru

Caspar is one of the three kings.

and

Example 5.101.

la	melxi,or.	cu	me	le	ci	nolraitru

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.

do	du	la	djan.
You	are-identical-with	that-named	“John.”

You are John.

means the same as

Example 5.103.

do	me	la djan.
You	are-the-referent-of	“that-named ‘John’.”

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.

ta	me	lai kraislr.	[me’u]	karce
That	(is-a-referent-of	“the-mass-named ‘Chrysler’”	)	car.

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.

re	me	le	ci	nolraitru	.e	la	djan.	[me’u]	cu	blabi

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

Example 5.106.

re	me	le	ci	nolraitru	me’u	.e	la	djan.	cu	blabi

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.

ta	me la’e le se cusku be do	me’u		cukta
That	is-a-(what-you-said)		type-of	book.

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.

le	me le ci nolraitru	[ku]	me’u	nunsalci
the	(the three kings)			type-of-event-of-celebrating

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.

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.

mi	prami	do

I love you.

is equivalent in meaning to:

Example 5.110.

do	se	prami	mi
You	[swap x1 and x2]	love	me.

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.

la	.alis.	cu	cadzu	klama	le	zarci
That-named	Alice		is-a-walker	type-of-goer-to	the	market.
That-named	Alice		walkingly	goes-to	the	market.

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.

le	zarci	cu	se
The	market		is-a-[swap x1/x2]
The	market

ke	cadzu	klama	[ke’e]	la	.alis.
(	walker	type-of-goer-to	)	that-named	Alice.
	is-walkingly	gone-to-by		that-named	Alice.

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

Example 5.113.

le	zarci	cu	se	cadzu
The	market		(is-a-[swap x1/x2]	walker)
The	market			is-a-walking-surface

klama	la	.alis.
type-of-goer-to	that-named	Alice.
type-of-goer-to	that-named	Alice.

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.

le	zarci	cu	cadzu	se klama	la	.alis.
The	market		walkingly	is-gone-to-by	that-named	Alice.

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.

la	djan.	cu	cadzu	se klama	la	.alis
That-named	John		walkingly	is-gone-to-by	that-named	Alice

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.

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.

la	.alis.	cu	na’e	ke	cadzu	klama	[ke’e]	le	zarci
That-named	Alice		non-	(	walkingly	goes-to	)	the	market.

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.

la	.alis.	cu	na’e	cadzu	klama	le	zarci
That-named	Alice		non-	walkingly	goes-to	the	market.

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.

la	djonz.	cu	na’e	pamoi	cusku
That-named	Jones		is-non-	1st	speaker

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.

mi	na’e	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	be’o	klama	le	zarci
I	((non-	quickly)	(walking		using	the	arms	))	go-to	the	market.

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.

mi	na’e	ke	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	[be’o]
I	non-	(	quickly	(walking		using	the	arms	)

ke’e	klama	le	zarci
)	go-to	the	market.

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.

mi	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	be’o
I	(quickly	(walking		using	the	arms	)

je	masno	klama	le	zarci
and	slowly)	go-to	the	market.

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

Example 5.122.

mi	ke	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	[be’o]	ke’e
I	(	(quickly	(walking		using	the	arms	)	)

je	masno	klama	le	zarci
and	slowly)	go-to	the	market.

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.

mi	na’e	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	be’o
I	((non-	quickly)	(walking		using	the	arms	)

je	masno	klama	le	zarci
and	slowly)	go-to	the	market.

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

Example 5.124.

mi	na’e	ke	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	[be’o]	ke’e
I	(non	(	quickly	(walking		using	the	arms)		)

je	masno	klama	le	zarci
and	slowly)	go-to	the	market.

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.

mi	na’e	ke	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	be’o
I	non-	(	quickly	((walking		using	the	arms)	)

je	masno	klama	[ke’e]	le	zarci
and	slowly)	go-to	)	the	market.

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.

mi	na’e	ke	sutra	cadzu	be	fi	le	birka	je	masno
I	non	(	quickly	walk		on-my	(the	arm-type	and	slow)

klama	[be’o]	[ke’e]	le	zarci
goers		)	on-the	market.

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 gi logically connected tanru construction. The meaning of this usage has not yet been firmly established._

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.

mi	pu	klama	le	zarci
I	[past]	go-to	the	market.

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.

la	djonz.	na	pamoi	cusku
That-named	Jones	(Not!)	is-the-first	speaker

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.

mi	na	pu	klama	le	zarci

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.

mi	na	na	klama	le	zarci

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.

mi	na	pu	na	ca	klama	le	zarci
I	[not]	[past]	[not]	[present]	go-to	the	market

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.## Some types of asymmetrical tanruThis 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):

| --- | ---------------- | --- | --------- | --- | ------- | --- | --------- | | Aba | Abazin | Chi | Chinese | Ewe | Ewe | Fin | Finnish | | Geo | Georgian | Gua | Guarani | Hop | Hopi | Hun | Hungarian | | Imb | Imbabura Quechua | Kar | Karaitic | Kaz | Kazakh | Kor | Korean | | Mon | Mongolian | Qab | Qabardian | Que | Quechua | Rus | Russian | | Skt | Sanskrit | Swe | Swedish | Tur | Turkish | Udm | Udmurt |

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

pinsi nunkilbra	pencil sharpener	Hun
zgike nunctu	music instruction	Hun
mirli nunkalte	deer hunting	Hun
finpe nunkalte	fish hunting	Tur,Kor,Udm,Aba	fishing
smacu terkavbu	mousetrap	Tur,Kor,Hun,Udm,Aba
zdani turni	house ruler	Kar	host
zerle’a nunte’a	thief fear	Skt	fear of thieves
cevni zekri	god crime	Skt	offense against the gods

Table 5.2. Mini-Glossary

nunkilbra	sharpness-apparatus
nunctu	event-of-teaching
nunkalte	event-of-hunting
terkavbu	trap
zerle’a	crime-taker
nunte’a	event-of-fearing

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

Table 5.3. Example tanru

zdani lijgri	house row
selci lamgri	cell block
karda mulgri	card pack	Swe
rokci derxi	stone heap	Swe
tadni girzu	student group	Hun
remna girzu	human-being group	Qab	group of people
cpumi’i lijgri	tractor column	Qab
cevni jenmi	god army	Skt
cevni prenu	god folk	Skt

Table 5.4. Mini-Glossary

lijgri	line-group
lamgri	adjacent-group
mulgri	complete-group
cpumi’i	pull-machine

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

carvi dirgo	raindrop	Tur,Kor,Hun,Udm,Aba
linji zdani	row house

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

junla dadysli	clock pendulum	Hun
purdi vorme	garden door	Qab
purdi bitmu	garden wall	Que
moklu skapi	mouth skin	Imb	lips
nazbi kevna	nose hole	Imb	nostril
karce xislu	automobile wheel	Chi
jipci pimlu	chicken feather	Chi
vinji rebla	airplane tail	Chi

Table 5.7. Mini-Glossary

dadysli	hang-oscillator

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

pixra cukta	picture book
kerfa silka	hair silk	Kar	velvet
plise tapla	apple cake	Tur
dadysli junla	pendulum clock	Hun

Table 5.9. Mini-Glossary

dadysli	hang-oscillator

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

ckunu tricu	pine tree	Hun,Tur,Hop

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

cinfo kerfa	lion mane	Kor,Tur,Hun,Udm,Qab
verba jamfu	child foot	Swe
nixli tuple	girl leg	Swe
cinfo jamfu	lion foot	Que
danlu skapi	animal skin	Ewe
ralju zdani	chief house	Ewe
jmive munje	living world	Skt
nobli bakni	noble cow	Skt
nolraitru ralju	king chief	Skt	emperor

Table 5.12. Mini-Glossary

nolraitru	nobly-superlative-ruler

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

Table 5.13. Example tanru

lanzu tumla	family land

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

Table 5.14. Example tanru

kalselvi’i gapci	tear gas	Hun
terbi’a jurme	disease germ	Tur
fenki litki	crazy liquid	Hop	whisky
pinca litki	urine liquid	Hop	beer

Table 5.15. Mini-Glossary

kalselvi’i	eye-excreted-thing
terbi’a	disease

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

Table 5.16. Example tanru

djacu barna	water mark	Chi

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

Table 5.17. Example tanru

taxfu dadgreku	garment rack	Chi
tergu’i ti’otci	lamp shade	Chi
xirma zdani	horse house	Chi	stall
nuzba tanbo	news board	Chi	bulletin board

Table 5.18. Mini-Glossary

dadgreku	hang-frame
tergu’i	source of illumination
ti’otci	shadow-tool

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

cpina rokci	pepper stone	Que	stone for grinding pepper
jamfu djacu	foot water	Skt	water for washing the feet
grana mudri	post wood	Skt	wood for making a post
moklu djacu	mouth water	Hun	water for washing the mouth
lanme gerku	sheep dog		dog for working sheep

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

Table 5.20. Example tanru

moklu djacu	mouth water	Aba,Qab	saliva
ractu mapku	rabbit hat	Rus
jipci sovda	chicken egg	Chi
sikcurnu silka	silkworm silk	Chi
mlatu kalci	cat feces	Chi
bifce lakse	bee wax	Chi	beeswax
cribe rectu	bear meat	Tur,Kor,Hun,Udm,Aba
solxrula grasu	sunflower oil	Tur,Kor,Hun,Udm,Aba
bifce jisra	bee juice	Hop	honey
tatru litki	breast liquid	Hop	milk
kanla djacu	eye water	Kor	tear

Table 5.21. Mini-Glossary

sikcurnu	silk-worm
solxrula	solar-flower

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

Table 5.22. Example tanru

silna jinto	salt well	Chi
kolme terkakpa	coal mine	Chi
ctile jinto	oil well	Chi

Table 5.23. Mini-Glossary

terkakpa	source of digging

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

rokci cinfo	stone lion
snime nanmu	snow man	Hun
kliti cipni	clay bird
blaci kanla	glass eye	Hun
blaci kanla	glass eye	Que	spectacles
solji sicni	gold coin	Tur
solji junla	gold watch	Tur,Kor,Hun
solji djine	gold ring	Udm,Aba,Que
rokci zdani	stone house	Imb
mudri zdani	wood house	Ewe	wooden house
rokci bitmu	stone wall	Ewe
solji carce	gold chariot	Skt
mudri xarci	wood weapon	Skt	wooden weapon
cmaro’i dargu	pebble road	Chi
sudysrasu cutci	straw shoe	Chi

Table 5.25. Mini-Glossary

cmaro’i	small-rock
sudysrasu	dry-grass

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

Table 5.26. Example tanru

blaci kanla bo tarmi	glass (eye shape)	glass eye
blaci kanla bo sidju	glass (eye helper)	spectacles

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

tumla spisa	land piece	Tur	piece of land
tcati kabri	tea cup	Kor,Aba	cup of tea
nanba spisa	bread piece	Kor	piece of bread
bukpu spisa	cloth piece	Udm,Aba	piece of cloth
djacu calkyguzme	water calabash	Ewe	calabash of water

Table 5.28. Mini-Glossary

calkyguzme	shell-fruit, calabash

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

Table 5.29. Example tanru

kensa bloti	spaceship
bakni verba	cattle child	Ewe	calf

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

kosta degji	coat finger	Hun	coat sleeve
denci genja	tooth root	Imb
tricu stedu	tree head	Imb	treetop

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

silka curnu	silkworm	Tur,Hun,Aba

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

sonci manti	soldier ant
ninmu bakni	woman cattle	Imb	cow
mamta degji	mother finger	Imb	thumb
cifnu degji	baby finger	Imb	pinky
pacraistu zdani	hell house	Skt
fagri dapma	fire curse	Skt	curse destructive as fire

Table 5.33. Mini-Glossary

pacraistu	evil-superlative-site

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

grutrceraso jbama	cherry bomb
solji kerfa	gold hair	Hun	golden hair
kanla djacu	eye water	Kar	spring
bakni rokci	bull stone	Mon	boulder

Table 5.35. Mini-Glossary

grutrceraso	fu’ivla for “cherry” based on Linnean name

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

Table 5.36. Example tanru

ckana boxfo	bed sheet	Chi
mrostu mojysu’a	tomb monument	Chi	tombstone
jubme tergusni	table lamp	Chi
foldi smacu	field mouse	Chi
briju ci’ajbu	office desk	Chi
rirxe xirma	river horse	Chi	hippopotamus
xamsi gerku	sea dog	Chi	seal
cagyce’u zdani	village house	Skt

Table 5.37. Mini-Glossary

mrostu	dead-site
mojysu’a	remember-structure
ci’ajbu	write-table
cagyce’u	farm-community

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

Table 5.38. Example tanru

cidja barja	food bar	Chi	restaurant
cukta barja	book bar	Chi	library

The seltau specifies the locus of application of the tertau.

Table 5.39. Example tanru

kanla velmikce	eye medicine	Chi
jgalu grasu	nail oil	Chi	nail polish
denci pesxu	tooth paste	Chi

Table 5.40. Mini-Glossary

velmikce	treatment used by doctor

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

Table 5.41. Example tanru

me la pinpan. bolci	Ping-Pong ball	Chi

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

Table 5.42. Example tanru

carvi mapku	rain cap	Chi
carvi taxfu	rain garment	Chi	raincoat
vindu firgai	poison mask	Chi	gas mask

Table 5.43. Mini-Glossary

firgai	face-cover

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

Table 5.44. Example tanru

cukta vasru	book vessel	Chi	satchel
vanju kabri	wine cup	Chi
spatrkoka lanka	coca basket	Que
rismi dakli	rice bag	Ewe,Chi
tcati kabri	tea cup	Chi
ladru botpi	milk bottle	Chi
rismi patxu	rice pot	Chi
festi lante	trash can	Chi
bifce zdani	bee house	Kor	beehive
cladakyxa’i zdani	sword house	Kor	sheath
manti zdani	ant nest	Gua	anthill

Table 5.45. Mini-Glossary

spatrkoka	fu’ivla for “coca”
cladakyxa’i	(long-knife)-weapon

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

Table 5.46. Example tanru

vensa djedi	spring day	Chi
crisa citsi	summer season	Chi
cerni bumru	morning fog	Chi
critu lunra	autumn moon	Chi
dunra nicte	winter night	Chi
nicte ckule	night school	Chi

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

Table 5.47. Example tanru

dikca tergusni	electric lamp	Chi
ratni nejni	atom energy	Chi
brife molki	windmill	Tur,Kor,Hun,Udm,Aba

Table 5.48. Mini-Glossary

tergusni	illumination-source

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

Table 5.49. Example tanru

ladru denci	milk tooth	Tur,Hun,Udm,Qab
kanla denci	eye tooth

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.## Some types of symmetrical tanruThis 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

cipnrstrigi pacru’i	owl demon	Skt
nolraitru prije	royal sage	Skt
remna nakni	human-being male	Qab	man
remna fetsi	human-being female	Qab	woman
sonci tolvri	soldier coward	Que
panzi nanmu	offspring man	Ewe	son
panzi ninmu	offspring woman	Ewe	daughter
solji sicni	gold coin	Tur
solji junla	gold watch	Tur,Kor,Hun
solji djine	gold ring	Udm,Aba,Que
rokci zdani	stone house	Imb
mudri zdani	wooden house	Ewe
rokci bitmu	stone wall	Ewe
solji carce	gold chariot	Skt
mudri xarci	wooden weapon	Skt
zdani tcadu	home town	Chi

Table 5.51. Mini-Glossary

cipnrstrigi	fu’ivla for “owl” based on Linnean name
pacru’i	evil-spirit
tolvri	opposite-of-brave

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

nunji’a nunterji’a	victory defeat	Skt	victory or defeat
donri nicte	day night	Skt	day and night
lunra tarci	moon stars	Skt	moon and stars
patfu mamta	father mother	Imb,Kaz,Chi	parents
tuple birka	leg arm	Kaz	extremity
nuncti nunpinxe	eating drinking	Udm	cuisine
bersa tixnu	son daughter	Chi	children

Table 5.53. Mini-Glossary

nunji’a	event-of-winning
nunterji’a	event-of-losing
nuncti	event-of-eating
nunpinxe	event-of-drinking

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

curnu jalra	worm beetle	Mon	insect
jalra curnu	beetle worm	Mon	insect
kabri palta	cup plate	Kaz	crockery
jipci gunse	hen goose	Qab	housefowl
xrula tricu	flower tree	Chi	vegetation

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

Table 5.55. Example tanru

tumla vacri	land air	Fin	world
moklu stedu	mouth head	Aba	face
sudysrasu cunmi	hay millet	Qab	agriculture
gugde ciste	state system	Mon	politics
prenu so’imei	people multitude	Mon	masses
djacu dertu	water earth	Chi	climate

Table 5.56. Mini-Glossary

sudysrasu	dry-grass
so’imei	manysome

“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’e for grouping and je or 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.

| -------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ----- | ------- | ------ | | melbi | | cmalu | | nixli | | ckule | | ((pretty | type-of | little) | type-of | girl) | type-of | school |

school for girls who are beautifully small

Example 5.133.

melbi	je	cmalu		nixli		ckule
((pretty	and	little)	type-of	girl)	type-of	school

school for girls who are beautiful and small

Example 5.134.

melbi	bo	cmalu	je	nixli		ckule
((pretty	type-of	little)	and	girl)	type-of	school

school for girls and for beautifully small things

Example 5.135.

ke	melbi		cmalu		nixli	ke’e	je	ckule
((	pretty	type-of	little)	type-of	girl	)	and	school

thing which is a school and a beautifully small girl

Example 5.136.

melbi	je	cmalu	je	nixli		ckule
((pretty	and	little)	and	girl)	type-of	school

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

Example 5.137.

melbi	bo	cmalu	je	nixli	je	ckule
((pretty	type-of	little)	and	girl)	and	school

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

Example 5.138.

ke	melbi	je	cmalu		nixli	ke’e	je	ckule
((	pretty	and	little)	type-of	girl	)	and	school

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

Example 5.139.

melbi	je	cmalu	je	nixli	je	ckule
((pretty	and	little)	and	girl)	and	school

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

Example 5.140.

melbi		cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule
(pretty	type-of	little)	type-of	(girl	type-of	school)

girls’ school which is beautifully small

Example 5.141.

melbi	je	cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule
(pretty	and	little)	type-of	(girl	type-of	school)

girls’ school which is beautiful and small

Example 5.142.

melbi		cmalu		nixli	je	ckule
(pretty	type-of	little)	type-of	(girl	and	school)

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

Example 5.143.

melbi	bo	cmalu	je	nixli	bo	ckule
(pretty	type-of	little)	and	(girl	type-of	school)

something which is beautifully small and a girls’ school

Example 5.144.

melbi	je	cmalu		nixli	je	ckule
(pretty	and	little)	type-of	(girl	and	school)

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

Example 5.145.

melbi	bo	cmalu	je	nixli	jebo	ckule
(pretty	type-of	little)	and	(girl	and	school)

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

Note: same as Example 5.137

Example 5.146.

melbi	jebo	cmalu	je	nixli	bo	ckule
(pretty	and	little)	and	(girl	type-of	school)

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

Note: same as Example 5.161

Example 5.147.

melbi	jebo	cmalu	je	nixli	jebo	ckule
(pretty	and	little)	and	(girl	and	school)

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

Example 5.148.

melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli		ckule
(pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	girl))	type-of	school

school for beautiful girls who are small

Example 5.149.

melbi		cmalu	je	nixli		ckule
(pretty	type-of	(little	and	girl))	type-of	school

school for beautiful things which are small and are girls

Example 5.150.

melbi	je	cmalu	bo	nixli		ckule
(pretty	and	(little	type-of	girl))	type-of	school

school for things which are beautiful and are small girls

Example 5.151.

ke	melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli	ke’e	je	ckule
	melbi	bo	cmalu	bo	nixli		je	ckule
(	pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	girl	))	and	school

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

Example 5.152.

melbi	je	cmalu	jebo	nixli		ckule
(pretty	and	(little	and	girl))	type-of	school

school for things which are beautiful, small, and girls

Note: same as Example 5.136

Example 5.153.

melbi	je	cmalu	bo	nixli	je	ckule
(pretty	and	(little	type-of	girl))	and	school

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

Note: same as Example 5.169

Example 5.154.

ke	melbi		cmalu	je	nixli	ke’e	je	ckule
(	pretty	type-of	(little	and	girl	))	and	school

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

Example 5.155.

melbi	je	cmalu	jebo	nixli	je	ckule
(pretty	and	(little	and	girl))	and	school

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

Example 5.156.

melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli	bo	ckule
melbi	ke	cmalu	ke	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]	[ke’e]
pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	(girl	type-of	school	)	)

small school for girls which is beautiful

Example 5.157.

melbi	ke	cmalu		nixli	je	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	(girl	and	school	))

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

Example 5.158.

melbi		cmalu	je	nixli	bo	ckule
pretty	type-of	(little	and	(girl	type-of	school))

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

Example 5.159.

melbi	je		cmalu	bo	nixli	bo	ckule
melbi	je	ke	cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule	[ke’e]
melbi	je	ke	cmalu	ke	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]	[ke’e]
pretty	and	(	little	type-of	(girl	type-of	school	)	)

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

Example 5.160.

melbi		cmalu	je		nixli	jebo	ckule
melbi		cmalu	je	ke	nixli	je	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	type-of	(little	and	(	girl	and	school	))

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

Note: same as Example 5.168

Example 5.161.

melbi	je		cmalu	jebo	nixli	bo	ckule
melbi	je	ke	cmalu	je	nixli	bo	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	and	(	little	and	(girl	type-of	school	))

thing which is beautiful, small and a girls’ school

Note: same as Example 5.146

Example 5.162.

melbi	je	ke	cmalu		nixli	je	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	and	(	little	type-of	(girl	and	school	))

beautiful thing which is a small girl and a small school

Example 5.163.

melbi	jebo	cmalu	jebo	nixli	jebo	ckule
pretty	and	(little	and	(girl	and	school))

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

Example 5.164.

melbi	ke	cmalu		nixli		ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	type-of	((little	type-of	girl)	type-of	school	)

beautiful school for small girls

Example 5.165.

melbi	ke	cmalu	je	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	type-of	((little	and	girl)	type-of	school

beautiful school for things which are small and are girls

Example 5.166.

melbi	ke	cmalu	bo	nixli	je	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	type-of	((little	type-of	girl)	and	school	)

beautiful thing which is a small girl and a school

Example 5.167.

melbi	je	ke	cmalu		nixli	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	and	((	little	type-of	girl)	type-of	school	)

thing which is beautiful and a school for small girls

Example 5.168.

melbi		cmalu	je	nixli	je	ckule
pretty	type-of	((little	and	girl)	and	school)

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

Note: same as Example 5.160

Example 5.169.

melbi	je	ke	cmalu	bo	nixli	je	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	and	((	little	type-of	girl)	and	school	)

thing which is beautiful, a small girl and a school

Note: same as Example 5.153

Example 5.170.

melbi	je	ke	cmalu	je	nixli		ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	and	((	little	and	girl)	type-of	school	)

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

Example 5.171.

melbi	je	ke	cmalu	je	nixli	je	ckule	[ke’e]
pretty	and	((	little	and	girl)	and	school	)

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