Re: [lojban] Re: xorlo podcast

[John E Clifford <clifford-j@sbcglobal.net>]

--- Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com> wrote:

> Here is an example of something that was very
> hard to say before
> and now is easy:
> 
>   mi terpa ci da no'u lo jukni .e lo gerku .e
> lo nu le tsani cu farlu
>   le stedu be mi
>   "I fear exactly three things: spiders, dogs
> and that the sky fall
>   on my head."
for help.

That way of putting it suggests that just this
would not work to this purpose in prelo.  But of
course it not only does, but does so directly,
without the behind the scenes complexity that
xorlo forces on the linguist -- though not,
happily, on the speakers.

{le broda} refers some specific things the
speaker has in mind and which he choses --
hopefully thus making their identity easy to
establish -- to call brodas (usually because they
are brodas).  The same pattern applies for {lei},
those specific guys acting together (there are
some complexities here but not yet a problem),
and {le'i} the set of which exactly those guys
are members.  Anything else to refer to things by
some property they have -- some predicate they
fulfill -- uses {lo} (or where applicable {loi}
or {lo'i}.  That has always been the rule -- more
or less clearly articulated.  It applies equally
to xorlo and prelo.