[lojban-beginners] Re: Number questions

["la cuncuxnas." <thatskotkid@gmail.com>]

I don't really know too much, but it looks to me as though {li} is
something like "the number", and "li ci su'i vo" comes close to "the
number (three plus four)".  (Which then makes the whole sentence
similar to "The number that is three added to four is equal/equivalent
to which number?") If vo got its own li, then ci would need one too,
and you'd end up with "li li ci su'i li vo", and that's just too many
articles for me to think about.

I don't really know about the li preceding xo, but just browsing the
cmavo listing shows that xo can apparently also refer to
letterals.  So perhaps the "li" eliminates the possibility of
someone saying that 3 + 4 = L.  But then, that's purely
speculation on my part.

I don't think "le" can be put on "ma".  Under certain
circumstances, I guess ({le ma karce} or "the car of who/what?"), but
otherwise "ma" is a pro-sumti, so it can stand on its own.  It's
intended to be replaced with a full sumti by whoever is answering the
question, so their answer could contain "le" or "la" or "lo" or
whatever fits.  xo, though, is not a pro-sumti.  It's
intended to be replaced by numbers (or letters, apparently), and so
acts like a number itself.

If I could place an attitudinal over that whole ramble, it'd run
something like "just keep in mind that I may understand things
incorrectly, and further may be completely off my nut."

mu'omi'e cuncuxnas.

On 8/10/05, Hal Fulton <hal9000@hypermetrics.com> wrote:

This appears in _Lojban for Beginners_:

    li ci su'i vo du li xo
    3 + 4 = ?

Fine, but I have some questions:

   - Why no "li" on "vo"? Is it optional or not?
   - Why "li" on "xo"? Optional or not? If optional,
     does meaning change?
   - If we can put "li" on "xo", can we put "le" on "ma"?
       do nelci le ma
     Optional or not? If optional, does meaning change?


Thanks for insights...


Hal