From pubsynx7hye@pacbell.net Mon Nov 01 23:25:03 2004 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Mon, 01 Nov 2004 23:34:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from ylpvm15-ext.prodigy.net ([207.115.57.46] helo=ylpvm15.prodigy.net) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1COt2M-0004zg-Or for lojban-beginners@chain.digitalkingdom.org; Mon, 01 Nov 2004 23:25:03 -0800 Received: from synx.dyndns.org (adsl-63-197-122-98.dsl.sktn01.pacbell.net [63.197.122.98]) by ylpvm15.prodigy.net (8.12.10 outbound/8.12.10) with ESMTP id iA27OxqY013076 for ; Tue, 2 Nov 2004 02:24:59 -0500 Received: by synx.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 36F3811FA04; Mon, 1 Nov 2004 23:02:44 -0800 (PST) To: lojban-beginners@chain.digitalkingdom.org Subject: [lojban-beginners] Brivla => sumti? X-Draft-From: ("INBOX.lists.lojban") From: Starling Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 23:02:43 -0800 Message-ID: <87acu068do.fsf@pacbell.net> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110003 (No Gnus v0.3) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-archive-position: 842 X-Approved-By: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@chain.digitalkingdom.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@chain.digitalkingdom.org X-original-sender: pubsynx7hye@pacbell.net Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@chain.digitalkingdom.org X-list: lojban-beginners I've seen it said more than once that brivla are functions with a name (selbri) and arguments (sumti). But a while ago I did learn the exact meaning of 'function' in programming, as it differs from the word 'subroutine'. Functions can be evaluated to produce a value, that can then be used as an argument for another function. Subroutines have no evaluated return value, although modern usage of the word tends to also include functions. So my question is, can brivla be evaluated as a sumti? That is, can I talk about how "John running through the store makes a mess for me to clean up?" Just a rough guess... la djan bajra clama le zarci .i (?) rinka mi lumci As in ( la djan bajra clama le zarci ) rinka ( mi lumci ) ju'ocu'i...