[lojban-beginners] Re: If-then-else?

[mungojelly@ixkey.info]

Quoting Penguino <spheniscine@gmail.com>:

> What is the Lojban equivalent to if-then-else statements?


My Lojban isn't very good yet so take my ideas with a grain of salt.  
:)  Here's one way I thought of:


.i ru'a broda    (supposing broda)

.i go'i seni'i/seri'a/etc lo nu brode
(that would necessitate, or physically cause, etc, brode)

.i na'e/na go'e seni'i/seri'a/etc lo nu brodi
(other-than/not that would necessitate, or physically cause, etc, brodi)


Basically as you are going along speaking Lojban there are various  
ways of packaging up ideas into bundles you can take along with you &  
establish various relationships between, including causal  
relationships.  You can put anything imaginable, including potential  
events, into prosumti like "ko'a."  So for instance you could say:

.i mi se xanri lo nu broda kei goi ko'a

I imagine an event of broda, which I'll call ko'a.

You can then use that "ko'a" in sentences about causality, such as  
"rinka," or sentences about logical necessity, such as "nibli," or  
sentences about desires or anything else.

.i ko'a ba rinka lo nu brode
That (ko'a) would cause brode.

It's usually even easier than assigning something to ko'a-- you can  
refer to the last thing that started with any letter by the name of  
the letter, such as by cy dy, which usually easily disambiguates over  
the last few sentences, and there are also the particular hooks go'i  
and go'e which allow you easy access to propositions or assertions  
you've just made.

So I think the real Lojbanic answer is that you don't have to do  
anything so simple as if-then-else.  If you use Lojban well you can  
simultaneously refer to many different potential situations & their  
causal interconnections, and knit very complicated comprehensions of  
the order of the world.

mi'e bret.