Re: [lojban] 'Solve & coagula' in lojban?

[".arpis." <rpglover64+jbobau@gmail.com>]

{pe} is easy to explain: it's basically "that" or "which". In more grammar oriented terms, it's the restrictive relative phrase marker.
{gau} is derived from {gasnu}, which loosely means "to make something happen"; when {gau} is placed at the end of a compound word, it changes the meaning of the word to include someone (or something, technically) who is making the entire thing happen. When placed elsewhere in a sentence, it does more or less the same thing, but the grammatical mechanism is different.

{sel}, which is the affix form of {se} (i.e. the form that's used in compound words} is the trickiest to explain without getting into the details of lojban (the details aren't complicated, just different), but you can think of it as similar to passive voice (without the negative stylistic baggage), so if {ko'a} and {ko'e} are two pronouns (and they are), {ko'a fendi ko'e} = {ko'e se fendi ko'a} = {ko'e selfendi ko'a} = "ko'a partitions ko'e"

The reason I suggested {selfedjo'e} over the shorter {fedjo'e} has to do with subtle differences in the shape of sentences involving {fendi} vs. {jorne}

{ko'a fendi ko'e} means "ko'a partitions ko'e", but

{ko'a jorne ko'e} means "ko'a and ko'e are joined", so when they're made into a compound
{ko'a selfedjo'e} clearly indicates that ko'a is the thing that is both split and joined, but

{ko'a fedjo'e} leaves more up to just remembering the definition.

Also, I stuck with your original word choices, but you might like to know that {runta} means "dissolves in", and if you were speaking about literally dissolving and not just separating, you would probably prefer that.

The difference between your English example and lojban is that without the {la}, it's a verb, and with the {la} it's a noun (sort of; lojban doesn't have verbs and nouns in the same way that English does, and we tend to refer to them by their lojban grammatical terms, but in this case, it's more or less analogous).

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 6:11 PM,  <Kosmaton@gmx.com> wrote:
> Hello, and thanks!
>
> Regarding your final suggestion:
>
> I like the compound {fedjo'e} - very appropriate in this 'two sides of one

> coin' case.
> Could you explain a bit more what the {sel}, {pe} and {gau} bits do?
> Funny that "names can't be arbitrary phrases in lojban". I suppose it's
> uncommon in many languages really. Still, isn't the {la} like 'the' -- but

> you might paint 'Sidewinder' on a boat, not necessarily 'The Sidewinder'
> even if you'd refer to the boat as 'the Sidewinder' in conversation...?
>
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-- 
mu'o mi'e .arpis.

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