[lojban-beginners] Nouns and verbs (was: learning lojban)

["Karl Naylor" <karl.org@gmail.com>]

On 01/03/07, Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu> wrote:

> There are nouns and verbs in Lojban, and also conjunctions, prepositions,

Could you give examples of nouns and verbs?  I'm not sure what you're
referring to.

> English is a nounish language, while Lojban is a verbish language. (I don't
> know the proper terms.) Consider "clock". If I use "clock" as a verb, it's
> not something a clock does; it's something done using a clock. But if I use
> {junla} as a verb, it is something a clock does: it ticks out time intervals

What do you mean by 'use {junla} as a verb'?  The example you gave in
English works, I believe, because the word "clock" has several
definitions including a noun (a device for measuring time) and a verb
(to measure the rate at which some process occurs).  In general,
though, English words are either nouns or verbs, although I will allow
that many nouns have acquired additional meanings as verbs.  But a
statement like 'I guitar' or 'this guitars' is still nonsensical
because "guitar" is a noun and has no other definition.

However, gismu do not have overloaded meanings, and neither are they
categorised into nouns and verbs, correct?  For example, {jgita} is
not a noun and {bajra} is not a verb.  Both are brivla.