Re: [lojban] Re: Translating preposition

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

On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 17:24:20 Sid wrote:
> And you can use the Lojban word for "preposition". English doesn't
> have many things like ergativity and postpositions, but it has the
> words to talk about them.

The Lojban for "preposition" (actually "adposition", as it doesn't specify, 
but all Lojban adpositions are prepositions) is "sumtcita". There are two 
kinds in Lojban: proper prepositions (selma'o BAI), which can be converted 
with SE, and tense markers (various selma'o), which can't. Then there are some 
words that look like prepositions, but are different:
*FA puts a sumti in a numbered case slot. It is normally omitted if the sumti 
would be in that slot without it. A Lojban grammarian describing English would 
put "to", when used to mark the indirect object, in this class.
*"pe" looks like a possessive preposition, but it's in the same selma'o as 
"goi", which is not a preposition.
*"be" looks like a preposition in phrases like "lo mamta be le verba", but it 
does something completely different.

Maybe FA is preposition; what do you think?

Pierre
-- 
La sal en el mar es más que en la sangre.
Le sel dans la mer est plus que dans le sang.

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