[lojban-beginners] Re: alice questions

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 8/14/05, Chris Capel <pdf23ds@gmail.com> wrote:
> First, {bo}. When you see the sequence {i PU bo}, does that mean that
> bo is grouping the two bridi together, using the sense of the PU cmavo
> used?

Yes, more generally any {i <tag> bo}.

> Second, {lo blabi ractu poi xunblabi se kanla}. Why doesn't this mean
> "a white rabbit with a pink body"? 

It's a tanru. {broda brode} doesn't have to mean {broda je brode}.
Often it can mean something like {brode be lo broda}. For example
{cinfo kalte} "lion hunter", is more likely hunter of lions than lion and 
hunter. 

>{se kanla} is the body that holds
> the eyes, right? So {xunblabi se kanla} means "pink [type-of] being
> body(ies) with eyes" or something, not anything close to "having pink
> eyes".

"Pink eyed". It could be "pink and eyed", but it can also just as well
be "eyed by a pink thing".

> Oh, and why the {poi}? Oughtn't it be {lo blabi ractu noi kanla
> noi xunblabi}?

(The two noi's there modify {lo blabi ractu}.)

> It seems like non-restrictive ought to be the default,
> being less error-prone, and it doesn't seem that {poi} is required
> here.

I don't see a problem with {poi} here. It restricts the sense of {blabi ractu}
to just those that have pink eyes.

> Third. In {i la'e di'u no'e ba'e mutce le ka cizra}, what kind of
> cadence might that be spoken with? Is stress usually put on {ba'e}, or
> on the next word? 

One theory is that you could/should read it in a monotone, the emphasis being
taken care of just by the presence of {ba'e}. I would emphasize the next word,
never {ba'e}.  

> And in {leka} and {lenu}, is stress usually put on
> the first or second cmavo?

I tend to stress the second if any, and don't usually write them together.

> I realize that there's probably no
> consensus on this, as no standard for the spoken language has really
> coalesced from usage, there being little vocal usage between
> geographically separated speakers.

That's right.

> And in three-syllable lujvo where
> the penultimate is "y", like {sezysku}, is the stress on the
> penultimate or the ... um ... third-to-last? (antepenultimate?
> penulpenultimate? anteanteultimate?)

Antepenultimate. Or, if you prefer, it's the penultimate non-y syllable.
y is never stressed, it doesn't count for the penultimate stress rule.

> One more thing. Are many of the {le} used in Alice better changed to
> {lo} after xorlo?

Probably. Especially in front of abstractors I would tend to use {lo} now. 

mu'o mi'e xorxes