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Re: [lojban-beginners] {le} and {lo}



Previous reference is not relevant to {lo} or to {le}. {lo] is generic; it is simply one or more x1s of the selbri provided. In this sense it is somewhat like a/an. However, {le} is for one or more specific things that *the speaker* has in mind, that they are describing as being an x1 of the selbri (but needn't be x1s of the selbri). "The" is quite different from {le}; "the" is relative to *the listener*, and so we would typically say things like "A dog went across the street. The dog dug up a bone." These sentences would not probably be translated with {lo} followed by {le}; in the first sentence, you don't have a specific dog in mind, and then in the second sentence you are talking about the same dog, but it still isn't a specific one, and so you would use {lo} in both cases. On the other hand, since {le}'s "having in mind" is relative to *the speaker*, you could easily introduce a sumti with {le} if you had it in mind at the start of the conversation, even if the listener doesn't know the exact referent.

a'o sidju .i mu'o mi'e latros

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 8:45 AM, Ben Foppa <eatingstaples@gmail.com> wrote:
This has been my understand of {lo} and {le}, please anybody correct
me if I'm wrong:
{lo} indicates something-which-really-is (or plurality thereof),
something which may-or-may-not have been referenced previously - this
is analogous to English "a/an" or "some", where things must - when
they're first introduced - be described as they are (for instance, "a
shadow that looked like a cat").

{le} indicates something-which-is-described-as (or plurality thereof),
and is used for specific things the speaker/writer has in mind, making
it analogous to "the" in English, where things may be described
somewhat incorrectly for context's sake (for instance, describing the
aforementioned shadow as "the cat").

This is based on http://www.lojban.org/tiki/How+to+use+xorlo and L4B -
are these correct interpretations? Obviously, not all the grammatical
intricacies will match, but for day-to-day speaking use, would these
be appropriate interpretations?

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