ti preti lojban

[Kevin Turner <Kevin.Turner@oberlin.edu>]

coi lojbanistan

Hi.  My name is Kevin Turner (no relation to Robin).  I am a native
speaker of American and am studying Español, but have found myself more
interested with the idea of learning languages than with learning any
language in particular.  And so it was that I discovered constructed
languages and lojban, which I have now embarked on learning.  I've been
reading the first lesson of the draft textbook and parts of the
reference grammar, and have come up with some questions.

Is there any constistancy of sumti order for gismu?  The first place is
seems very regular (as the-thing-which-is-to-be-related), but beyond
that...  For example tavla and dunda.  Tavla has x2 being the recipient
of the talking while x3 is the thing which is being talked about, while
dunda has x3 being the recipient of the giving while x2 is the thing
which is given.

Also, it seems to be common to for gismu definitions to have a "made of
material" simtu tacked on at the end, but this is not universal.  I can
specify the material for a bottle by supplying the third sumti to botpi,
but it seems to me such a sumti would be frequently ellipsed, thus
making it difficult to remeber if it was defined.

In contrast, another method is required to say "Adobe, the car that's
made out of clay," as karce has no such material-sumti place defined.
So I imagine there is a selbri for "x1 is constructed of material x2"...
But I am curious, what was the rationale for occasionally defining these
"made of" placements?  

My bridi of the day:  I had to interrupt my afternoon's study of lojban
to go to my psychology class, of which today's topic was language.  On
my way there, I discovered that I did not yet have the vocabulary to say
"the class of mind-study," but I could probably say that I was going to
"the one who talks about small heads".  I came up with

mi klama le te le stedu cpana ku tavla ku

Is this correct?

mi cikrie
 - keven.
(or is it geven.?)