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Re: [lojban] cmevla as a class of brivla




On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 11:31 AM, John E Clifford <kali9putra@yahoo.com> wrote:

There appear to be two choices.  One is that {la} functions like {le} etc. making a special kind of description out of a brivla or bridi tail or what have you. 


It's called a sumti-tail, a brivla being the simplest case of sumti-tail. "broda brode", "me ko'a", "nu broda", "broda be ko'e", "ci broda", "poi broda ku'o brode", etc are all examples of sumti-tail, which can be names, but they are not (single) brivla. OTOH "broda ko'a" is a bridi-tail and it is not a possible name.

"la", just like any member of LE, turns a sumti-tail into a sumti. But unlike members of LE, it can also turn chains of one or more cmevla into a sumti.

 
In that case, cmevla are just an odd sort of brivla, requiring {la} to function as names and other wise serving as predicates meaning "x1 is named by this string": {mi pycyn} is well-formed and nothing special. 


They aren't with the current grammar, but the argument is that they should be.

 
On the other hand, {la} is special in that it  turns a brivla into a soundstring and then uses that string as a name. 

That's what "la" does, except of course when all it does is take something that is already nothing but a soundstring, in which case it doesn't need to turn it into anything, just use it as a name.
 
In that case, cmevla are a separate category, since they name without the need for {la}

Rather, they are already mere soundstrings. They need "la" (or "doi") in order to name. 
 
(although the rules do require its use).  {la}turns a brivla into a cmene. 

"la" turns either a sumti-tail (of which brivla are the most basic type) or a chain of one or more consonant-ending soundstrings into a name,

The expansions fairly clearly favor the second view, but are, of course, not strictly official.

The expansion  "la broda -> zo'e noi lu broda li'u cmene ke'a" does not particularly favor or oppose the merge of cmevla with brivla. All the merge does is provide a rather obvious meaning to the otherwise meaningless consonant-ending soundstrings, so that they too can be used as brivla, and so that they don't require a special and more restricted syntax.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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