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[lojban-beginners] Re: bo

On 2/12/07, Karl Naylor <karl.org@gmail.com> wrote:

Having read through Lojban for Beginners and up to Chapter 10 of the
Reference Grammar, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with 'bo'.  I
gather that there must be some kind of unified theory of 'bo' which
explains all its behaviours, otherwise we'd use different words for
the (apparently) different applications of 'bo'.


{bo} has two functions.

Function 1: It makes a construction bind tighter than it would without bo:

 (broda ije brode) ija brodi
 (broda gi'e brode) gi'a brodi
 (broda je brode) ja brodi
 (broda brode) brodi
 (ko'a .e ko'e) .a ko'i

vs:

 broda ije (brode ijabo brodi)
 broda gi'e (brode gi'abo brodi)
 broda je (brode jabo brodi)
 broda (brode bo brodi)
 ko'a .e (ko'e .abo ko'i)

In many of these cases, {bo} also allows a tag to be inserted as a
connective:

 broda i (je) <tag> bo brode
 broda gi'e <tag> bo brode
 broda je <tag> bo brode
 ko'a .e <tag> bo ko'e

Function 2: It makes a cmavo of NAhE work as one of LAhE:

 {na'e bo ko'a} works like {la'e ko'a}



As I understand it, in tanru it binds the two nearest brivla (or
bracketed groups of brivla).  Between sentences it makes the preceding
connective connect the two sentences.  When used this way, it causes
its connective to swallow up the whole following sentence, not just a
single sumti.


A conective between sentences (ije) always connects sentences, it never
swallows a single sumti. What {bo} does is make the connective (ijebo) take
precedence over other connectives. This is the same function as in tanru.
What you are thinking of are tags, not connectives. A tag between {i} and
{bo} works as a sentence connective, yes.


 Also it apparently reverses the meaning of tenses when
used between sentences.


When a tag is used as a connective (in any position, not just between
sentences: {i <tag> bo}, {gi'e <tag> bo}, {.e <tag> bo}) the order
is different for tenses and for BAIs. That is indeed a glitch.


My problem is that I don't see why these apparently disparate effects
all follow from the same word.  Is there any help to be found on this?


There are really only two uses of {bo}: tight binding is the main one,
and {na'e bo} is the marginal one. The reversal of tenses with respect to
BAIs when tags are used as connectives is not really an effect of {bo}.

mu'o mi'e xorxes