[lojban-beginners] Re: ti/ta/tu, zo'e, da

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

On Thursday 17 August 2006 11:03, Michael Graff wrote:
> 2. Question: {da terpa mi} means "Something terrifies me." {[zo'e] terpa
> mi} seems to be used interchangebly - in contradiction to the quoted
> explanation in the "Lojban Reference Grammer". And why two different
> wordes for the same meaning?

{da} is a variable in a logical quantification. {zo'e} marks a place left 
empty. If there's only one of them with no quantifier, it's not easy to see 
the difference, but if there are two, there's a clear difference.

{zo'e remsmismani voda}: "There are four species of great ape."
{de remsmismani voda}: "There is a great ape that belongs to four species at 
once."
{de remsmismani vozo'e}: Grammatical but nonsensical.
{voda se remsmismani zo'e}: "There are four species of great ape."
{voda se remsmismani de}: "There are four species of great ape that have 
members."

In a relative clause, {zo'e} may be required to mark a place empty, because 
the listener will assume, in the absence of {ce'u}, that {ce'u} fills one of 
the places.

phma