Re: [lojban-beginners] What is bo?

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

On Saturday 29 January 2011 17:20:20 ianek wrote:
> So, I'm confused about BO. (And I don't mean body odor).
> What does it exactly do? I see some unrelated functions:
> * tanru grouping {cmalu nixli bo ckule}
> * causal relations between sentences {ro ractu na'e ze'u
> jmive .iseni'ibo la flufis. mrobi'o} and related uses with {i [modal]
> bo}
> * now I've learnt about using it for tagging sumti with modals in A
> constructs: {la loglan e ba za bo la lojban}
>
> Is it really the same {bo} with the same function?

In the third phrase, "bo" is not tagging a sumti: it's *preventing* the 
preposition from tagging the sumti, and making it tag the conjunction 
instead. In "iseni'ibo", it again prevents "seni'i" from tagging "la flufis" 
and turns it into a conjunction. (You can also use it together with an actual 
conjunction: "ijeseni'ibo".)

In "cmalu nixli bo ckule", "bo" indicates that "nixli" and "ckule" are bound 
together more closely than "cmalu" and "nixli". If you said "cmalu bo nixli 
bo ckule", that would still be true. If you connect three sentences 
with "ini'ibo", again the last two group together. If you want to say ((A, 
therefore B), therefore C), I think you have to use "tu'e ... tu'u".

So I think "bo" has two functions, and sometimes performs both: it makes a 
preposition tag a preceding (perhaps implied) conjunction instead of a 
following sumti, and it makes things group together more closely and with 
right-grouping.

By the way, "baza" isn't a modal, it's a tense marker. A "modal", in Lojban 
jargon, is a preposition derived from a brivla.

Pierre
-- 
Jews use a lunisolar calendar; Muslims use a solely lunar calendar.

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