[lojban-beginners] Re: distinction between gismu & cmavo

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

On Sunday 20 May 2007 18:57, Vid Sintef wrote:
> Isn't an affix something to be "added" to a base word and alter its
> original grammatical nature (like the English "-er" in "longer" or the
> Czech "nej-" in "nejhorší" or the Japanese "sa-" in "samayou")? If it is
> that rafsi are to be "joined" together to make longer words, mustn't they
> be certain "root" words themselves from which that resulting longer words'
> meanings would derive, possessing proper semantic essences even though they
> are not to be spoken as single words. If it is a convention to not use
> rafsi individually, still that doesn't stop them from possessing the nature
> of base words. 

There are three types of affix in languages:
1. Affixes that make compound words. All gismu rafsi are of this type 
(including "mau", which semantically corresponds to "-er", which is a 
derivational affix).
2. Derivational affixes. Some cmavo rafsi are of this type. These are usually 
prefixes in Lojban, such as "nun-", "tol-", "kam-".
3. Inflectional affixes. These don't exist in Lojban.

phma