From cbmvax!uunet!cuvma.bitnet!LOJBAN Wed Dec 18 20:09:10 1991 Return-Path: Date: Wed Dec 18 20:09:10 1991 Message-Id: <9112182240.AA24067@relay1.UU.NET> Reply-To: "Mark E. Shoulson" Sender: Lojban list From: "Mark E. Shoulson" Subject: tutorial question X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan , Ken Taylor In-Reply-To: "F. Schulz"'s message of Wed, 18 Dec 1991 10:19:28 -0800 Status: RO Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1991 10:19:28 -0800 From: "F. Schulz" X-To: uunet!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!lojban@uunet.UU.NET In Diagrammed Summary of Lojban Grammar Forms with Example Sentences the following appears: la djan. po'u le ctuca [ku] [ge'u] [cu] klama [vau] -------- < ------------- | ===== John, the teacher, comes. It appears to me that the cu in front of klama is not optional. Or do I not understand what [ ] means? Depends on how you look at it. Not everything bracketed in this example is optional, but each thing bracketed is. Of the three consecutive bracketed words [ku] [ge'u] [cu], each is elidable (or omittable, in the case of cu), or any two, but NOT all three: la djan. po'u le ctuca klama <-- grammatical, but not right. it means, "John, who-is the teacher-comer..." (hmmm. I think in this case it would be incorrect to have the "vau" on the end though. Not sure.) la djan. po'u le ctuca ku klama la djan. po'u le ctuca ge'u klama la djan. po'u le ctuca cu klama and so on, are all right and give the desired meaning and structure. ~mark