Re: I'm new, and I have questions, damnit.

[SwiftRain <swiftrain@geocities.com>]

just as a disclaimer, i might make some small grammatical errors in
these examples as i'm far from fluent in lojban.  but i think they are
basically correct... 
 
Avital Oliver/biOmass wrote:
> 
> What does poi do, exactly?
 
poi & noi both allow you to attach a descriptive bridi to a sumti, as
such: 
 
le jipci cu fengu 
 -- the chicken is mad 
le jipci noi citka le gurni cu fengu 
 -- the chicken (who happens to eat grain) is mad 
 
if noi is used, then the information provided by the bridi is incidental
(as in this example).  if poi is used, then the information is necessary
to identify the referent of the sumti.  for instance if there are balls
of various colors & i want you to give me the blue one, i might say: 
 
ko dunda le bolci poi blanu vau mi 
 -- give me the ball which is blue 
 
> And what comes instead of `that', as in "I talked
> the boy that learned"?
> Would it be `mi tavla le {boy} poi cirna'?
 
mi tavla le nanla noi/poi cilre 
 
whether you use noi or poi depends, as i said above, on whether you are
simply providing the extra information that the boy learned, or saying
that the boy you talked to can be identified as the one who learned. 
 
> What does ri replace?
 
it repeats the immediately preceeding sumti. 
 
> I mean, if I have, "mi tavla do ri" mean `I talked to him about 
> myself' or `I talked to him about himself'?
 
"i talked to you about yourself." 
 
to say "i talked to you about myself" you can either use ra (which goes
back further than ri), giving: 
 
mi tavla do ra 
 -- i talk to you about myself 
 
or (& i find this more pleasing), rearrange the sumti so ri applies,
giving: 
 
do se tavla mi ri 
 -- to you, talk i, about myself. 
 
or just repeat "mi," though the implications may be different in some
undefined way: 
 
mi do mi tavla 
 -- i, to you, about myself talk 
 
 
.i .a'o do mi'a fo la lojban. bazi tavla 
co'o mi'e bret.