Re: [lojban] {le} and {lo}.

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.hn.org>]

On Thursday 19 May 2005 07:12, Opi Lauma wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I try to understand the usage of {le} and {lo}. The
> analogy with English articles ?the? and ?a/an? does
> not help me to much since I am not native English
> speaker.
>
> However, I think that I understood the usage of {le}.
> Actually {le X} means that I speak about some earlier
> selected (defined) subset of elements from set X, for
> example:

"the" in English means that the speaker expects the listener to know which 
thing is being referred to. {le} in Lojban means that the speaker knows which 
thing he is referring to. To indicate that the thing has not been mentioned 
before, one says {bi'u}.

Some examples where the usage differs between languages:
ni'o le bi'u cmalu bloti
Il était un petit navire
There was a little boat
(a French folk song)
The speaker knows which boat, but the listener doesn't.

mi ba skagau lei kerfa sepi'o lo me'andi
Je coloriserai les cheveux avec du henné.
I will color my hair with henna.
I know which hair I will color, but I don't know which henna I will use (I'm 
going to order some more soon).

.a'o lo fasygu'e cu renvi
Vive la France!
Long live France!
There is only one France, so Lojban uses {lo}, for reasons I don't have time 
to go into now (I have a meeting). I'd use {la fasygug} instead but used a 
brivla for this example.

phma
-- 
lo nu punji lo sovda be lo cipnrkuku kukuku
zvati lo zdani be lo na'e cipnrkuku kuku