Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 18:53:03 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801062353.SAA14600@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Chris Bogart Sender: Lojban list From: Chris Bogart Subject: Re: cmavo word order X-To: lojban To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1380 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Jan 6 18:53:06 1998 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU la rabzuk cusku di'e: >I also feel confused about the meaning changes when you put a cmavo >in different places inside a bridi. For example in: >le mo'u zdani cu po'ayfa'u - "the expired house fell to pieces" >|---sumpti--| |--selbri--| You need an "r", not a "y" as the glue in this lujvo: po'arfa'u. Use y = after a consonant, r after a vowel. But otherwise your diagramming is good. = By the way, the "p" in "sumti" is silent, like the "m" in "fish". :-) >If my diagramming seems correct here, would have a >different meaning? Would the glosses "the completed house", "the = fulfilled >house", and "the ended house" all work for ? {mo'u} isn't one of those cmavo that you can put just anywhere. It = always comes at the beginning of the selbri (even if the selbri is = inside a sumti). So you can't say {le zdani mo'u} (well, you could, but = the mo'u would not be part of the sumti. It would attach to po'arfa'u, = if you left off {cu}). Regarding the meaning, I think it helps to think of zdani as a verb: x1 = is a house; so mo'u zdani would mean that x1 finishes being a house -- = it's fallen apart, or been demolished, or it's been turned into a = McDonald's. Some of your glosses sound to me like they mean the = builders are done building it, and it's ready to be lived in -- which I = don't think is right. co'o mi'e kris