[lojban-beginners] Re: Help! The Xorlo are attacking!

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Jon "Top Hat" Jones <eyeonus@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Of course all {cmevla} are {cmene}, but not all {cmene} are {cmevla}.

I would rather say all cmevla can be used as cmene, but not all cmene
need be or consist of cmevla.

Comparing cmevla and cmene is like comparing apples and desserts. All
apples can be eaten for dessert, but not all desserts need be or
consist of apples. (Not all apples are actually eaten for dessert, and
not all cmevla are actually used as cmene.)

"cmevla" is a word category. Lojban has three word categories: cmavo,
cmevla, and brivla. Or, if you prefer to split the brivla category, it
has five word categories: cmavo, cmevla, gismu, lujvo, and fu'ivla.

That's where the concept of cmevla fits in, it is a category of word form.

What can be a bit confusing sometimes is that in Lojban word form is
highly correlated with word function. So all words in the cmevla
category have the same syntactic function, and all words in the brivla
category have the same syntactic function. In contrast, the words in
the cmavo category have all sorts of different syntactic functions.

"cmene" is a function category. Words with cmevla form are the
archetypical words that can be used as cmene, because those words
can't be used for much else, but all words in the brivla category can
be used as cmene too, and cmene don't need to consist of single words.
Any string of cmevla can also be used as a cmene, and any selbri can
be used as a cmene, so that a cmene could in fact consist of cmavo
only, e.g. "pa moi" can be used as a cmene.

mu'o mi'e xorxes