[lojban-beginners] Re: la/le

["Michael Turniansky" <mturniansky@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:17 AM, Jon Top Hat Jones <eyeonus@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 10:44 PM, M CHILDS <m_chi919@msn.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'm still having trouble understanding la and le... so for instance
>>
>> ninmu is a selbri
>> and le would be a sumti
>>
>> le ninmu
>>
>> and the structure of ninmu is
>>  x1 is a woman
>>
>> so for the distinction between THE and A?
>> and why is someone's name x1 = la?
>>
>> and why are le and la necessary if they are place holders for the object,
>> when the selbri describes that object?
>>

  "le" is not a sumti.  It is a gadri, (an article), which essentially
converts a selbri into a sumti.  The sumti is "le ninmu".  So you can
say "le ninmu cu ninmu".  Which means "the woman is a woman".  In that
sentence "le ninmu" fills the x1 slot of the selbri
"ninmu"(is-a-woman) (cu indicates the selbri follows.  In certain
cases, it may be dropped).  There ARE cmavo (small function-words)
that act like sumti in and of themselves, such as "ti" (this/here).
"ti ninmu"=This is a woman.


>
> {le cribe} means "the bear", that is, a particular bear that you have in
> mind, whether it be the stuffed bear you had as a kid, or the bear that ate
> your porridge. This is different from {cribe} in that you are indicating one
> particular bear. It can be anything that you, the speaker, would call a
> bear, whether it be an actual bear or not.
>

  More precisely, "le cribe" doesn't have to be one bear (that would
be "pa cribe").  In can mean any number of bears.

> {la cribe} means "Bear", as in something which is named Bear, whether that
> be Frank Bear, the author, a large dog named Bear (which, I believe, one of
> us has),

  I do.
mi ponse lo gerku no'u la cribe
(I have a dog, Bear)

                      --gejyspa