On Jan 23, 2007, at 4:48 PM, Cortesi wrote:
Cmavo in NU take bridi and turn them into an abstraction. For example, {nu} makes events. So, it takes {ta bajra} - {that is running} and turns it into {ta nu bajra} - {that is an event of running}. You need LE cmavo if you want to use it as an argument (sumti). For example, *{mi tavla do nu bajra} is ungrammatical because both {tavla} and {nu bajra} are selbri, just smashed together. While you can have more than one selbri in a sentence, you need some more cmavo in there to make it work. The correct form is {mi tavla do lo nu bajra} - {I talk to you [about] the event of running}. Here {le} and {nu} both sort of "surround" the selbri {bajra} to transform it into what we want. Since they often come together, you see it written as {lonu} instead of {lo nu} by some Lojbanists. If you've programmed in C++, think like recasting. Or think of these like a converter pipe fitting/cord/dongle/etc. You started with a selbri (verb) -- then NU turned it into an abstraction but left it a verb. The LE makes it a noun (sumti) so that you can use it as an argument. mu'o mi'e .aleks. |