Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20030723111315.02dbcb90@pop.east.cox.net>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 11:18:57 -0400
To: lojban-beginners@chain.digitalkingdom.org
From: Nora LeChevalier <noras@cox.net>
Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: First Complex Lujvo
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At 07:05 AM 7/23/03 -0700, you wrote:

>--- Travis Garris <ptg_thug@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > {mi cmana kevna zbasu}
> >
> > The magic of that statement is still just beyond me.
> > I would start by wondering what the x2 and x3 of cmana
> > were.  "I'm a mountain with caves...wha--?"  I guess a
> > cu before zbasu would help.
>
>{cmana kevna zbasu} is a tanru, {cmana} modifies {kevna}
>and then {cmana kevna} modifies {zbasu}. A cu before zbasu
>would be ungrammatical, because cu can only go in front of
>the whole selbri, which in this case is {cmana kevna zbasu}.
>
>mu'o mi'e xorxes

To expand on xorxes' explanation, consider "This is a comic book 
shelf".  The thing you're pointing at isn't a comic, nor a book; it's a 
shelf - the LAST of the string of description.  Lojban works like that.  It 
is a comic-type-of-book, and then a comic-book type of shelf.

So, the "cmana kevna zbasu" that "mi" is/is-doing winds up:
   mountain (cmana) type of cavity (kevna) --> mountain cave
   cmana kevna (mountain-cave) type of maker/builder (zbasu).
So you are a mountian-cave builder.


-- 
mi'e noras                                             noras@cox.net
Nora LeChevalier