Subject: [lojban] Re: selbri first

From: Jordan DeLong <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 10:48:35 -0500

On Sun, Sep 22, 2002 at 08:08:44AM -0000, Viktoro wrote:
> Can one put the selbri first in a sentence like the following?
> 
> dunda fi la klaudias. fe le cukta fa viktor.
> Victor gives the book to Claudia.
> 
> Is that correct?

Almost; You need a "la" in front of viktor.

You can also do like:
dunda fa la viktor. le cukta la klaudias.

It's common to see word order like this sometimes as well, such
as
xamgu fa lenu do tavla fo la lojban.
It is good that [the event of] you speak lojban.
to emphasize the selbri rather than the 'subject' in x1.

If you're building a sentence with bridi-tails, however, you're
probably going to want at least one term in front of the selbri.

> Are there other ways to put the selbri first in non-observatives?

The easiest way is what you just did; you can use cmavo like 'fa' to
put things into those places.

Sometimes people will leave out the first place even if the sentence
is sorta a non-observative, and allow the zo'e to imply the meaning.

-- 
Jordan DeLong - [email-masked]
lu zo'o loi censa bakni cu terzba le zaltapla poi xagrai li'u
sei la mark. tuen. cusku