[lojban-beginners] Re: cmavo

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

On Friday 28 November 2008 15:32:48 Tom Gysel wrote:
> Is it that addictive? :)
>
> Don't worry, with the little time I'm having and at the pace I'm learning,
> I'll have my hands full on the first 25% for a while to come :) I'm still a
> very beginning beginner
>
> e.g.: could someone help me with:
> .i ko'a pu denpa le sexruti bloti le tcadu le pu'u bevri ko'a le daplu
> i don't understand the structure of this sentence.
> shouldn't there be a 'be' in front of 'tcadu'?
> confused with sumti places

The selbri (the main verb) is "denpa", whose arguments are:
the one who waits: ko'a
the thing waited for: le bloti
the place one stays while waiting: le tcadu
the thing that will happen after the wait is over: le pu'u bevri.
If you said "le se xruti bloti be le tcadu", that would mean "the ship is 
returned carrying the city". Ships don't carry cities. The sentence means "He 
waited in the city for the boat to return to take him to the island." 
("xruti" is passive because the boat is returned by its crew, who are not 
mentioned.)

Pierre