[lojban-beginners] Re: Articles to Refer to Words Themselves

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

On Wed, Jul 14, 2004 at 08:29:09PM +0200, jexOm. wrote:
> coi travis .i mi'e jexOm.
> 
> Le 13 juil. 04, ? 02:25, Travis Garris a ?crit :
> 
> >I'm baffled as to which articles, or abstractions, I would use to
> >specify a word itself, and not its meaning.  For example, "Bye is a
> >short form of goodbye."  The example I was using at the time was {vol
> >rafsi volfi}.  That starts to look like a tanru, so I tried to put
> >something in to break up rafsi and volfi.  Only think I could come up
> >with is {vol rafsi zo volfi}.  That borrows from (now optional)
> >English grammar rules.  I'm sure it gets the point across, but I'm
> >sure there is a better way to do it.
> 
> As for your first try, istead of {vol rafsi volfi}, it should be {vol
> cu rafsi vofli}. {cu} indicates when the selbri starts. But, you need
> to use a quotation in order to tell that you are speaking of the
> words. So, it would give: {zo vol cu rafsi zo vofli}.

Correct except that rafsi are not, in general, valid Lojban words.  In
this case it can be treated as a cmene, but in general one must use zoi.

-Robin

-- 
http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/
Reason #237 To Learn Lojban: "Homonyms: Their Grate!"