From LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Sat Mar 6 22:58:57 2010 Reply-To: Chris A Bogart Sender: Lojban list Date: Tue Dec 17 10:10:44 1996 From: Chris A Bogart Subject: Re: BEGINNER'S QUESTION: internal sumti X-To: lojban%cuvmb.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: <199612131406.HAA28893@indra.com> X-UIDL: 5d9686bb1a4f4d7b3015a6511d5fbfaa X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1198 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Dec 17 10:10:44 1996 X-From-Space-Address: - Message-ID: <7MhGRatPIHC.A.qAC.x60kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org> On Sat, 14 Dec 1996, Nick Summers wrote: > are there any conventions for defining strings of words constituting a > tanru? Any start/end markers or joining words? Can I just go adding > words together: 'a big blue dilapidated old wooden Georgian house'? Two useful rules to get started with: - Tanru group left-to-right, e.g. merko panpi gumna = (merko panpi) gunma : probably means some kind of group dedicated to promoting a distinctively American kind of peace - Use ke..ke'e as parenthesis (with ke'e elidable at end of tanru): merko ke panpi gunma = merko (ke panpi gumna ke'e) A peace group, which is American merko=America(n) panpi=peace gunma=group (example taken from an error I made, using the first to translate "American Peace Corps" -- when the latter would have been better. My corrector suggested that the first might be translated as "'Pax Americana' corps". I'm not sure whether it was really an error I made, or biting subconscious political commentary :-) ) There's also some connectives you can put between words: je = logical and, joi = "combined with", etc. -- you'll have to look in the ref grammar for the whole list... co'omi'e kris