[lojban-beginners] Re: Quick Reference Guide for language words

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Saturday 27 October 2007 19:58, Joel Shellman wrote:
> > rafsi: affix syllable (like a suffix or prefix)
>
> This doesn't tell me much of what it's used for. Are rafsi used for
> any purpose other than lujvo generation?

Yes; they're also used for making type 3 fu'ivla. For example, {fiprgado} is 
made of {fip-}, the rafsi of {finpe}; a hyphen-letter; and "Gadus", the genus 
name.

Lujvo are used for both compounding and derivation. Derivatives are most words 
formed by adding a rafsi of a cmavo, such as {selbri}, {tolmorji}, and 
{nuncasnu}. Lujvo formed by adding rafsi of selma'o GOhA, such as 
{comdaidza} "thingamajig", are compounds. Comparatives and superlatives, 
unlike in English, are compounds.

> > tanru: metaphoric modifier-phrase
>
> interesting, how is it metaphoric?

Often it isn't; that word was chosen for the keyword in the gimste for reasons 
I don't know. {gerku zdani}, in the usual sense of {gerzda} or in the 
dwelling-of-fleas sense, is not metaphoric but literal.

> > bridi: sentence made of arguments connected by a relationship
>
> I'd be a little concerned about using "sentence" flat out... it's not
> necessarily the same. In logic terms, a bridi is a predicate, right?
> So, I could say a "predicate composed of a relationship and its
> arguments." Oh! Well, yeah, that's what shows up on jbovlaste, so
> yeah, that works for me.

"sentence" is {jufra}; that word can be used for a string of bridi connected 
by conjunctions or for an interjection, neither of which is a bridi.

"predicate", as the term is used in English grammar (and IE grammar in 
general), is {brirebla}, not {bridi}.

> > sumti: an argument in a sentence.
>
> I'm going to say "argument to a selbri in a bridi" as that can be
> stated without qualification, I assume.

The term "argument" is used in rarbau gerna in this sense, but it's not found 
in your average English grammar.

Pierre