The Complete Lojban Language (2016)/Chapter 5

by John Woldemar Cowan

Chapter 5
“Pretty Little Girls' School”: The Structure Of Lojban selbri

5.1 Lojban content words: brivla

At the center, logically and often physically, of every Lojban bridi is one or more words which constitute the selbri. A bridi expresses a relationship between things: the selbri specifies which relationship is referred to. The difference between:

Example 5.1

do	mamta	mi
You	are-a-mother-of	me

You are my mother

and

Example 5.2

do	patfu	mi
You	are-a-father-of	me.

You are my father.

lies in the different selbri.

The simplest kind of selbri is a single Lojban content word: a brivla. There are three different varieties of brivla: those which are built into the language (the gismu), those which are derived from combinations of the gismu (the lujvo), and those which are taken (usually in a modified form) from other languages (the fu'ivla). In addition, there are a few cmavo that can act like brivla; these are mentioned in Section 5.9 (p. 94), and discussed in full in Chapter 7 (p. 139).

For the purposes of this chapter, however, all brivla are alike. For example,

Example 5.3

ta	bloti
That	is-a-boat.

That is a boat.

Example 5.4

ta	brablo
That	is-a-large-boat.

That is a ship.

Example 5.5

ta	blotrskunri
That	is-a-(boat)-schooner.

That is a schooner.

illustrate the three types of brivla (gismu, lujvo, and fu'ivla respectively), but in each case the selbri is composed of a single word whose meaning can be learned independent of its origins.

The remainder of this chapter will mostly use gismu as example brivla, because they are short. However, it is important to keep in mind that wherever a gismu appears, it could be replaced by any other kind of brivla.

5.2 Simple tanru

Beyond the single brivla, a selbri may consist of two brivla placed together. When a selbri is built in this way from more than one brivla, it is called a tanru, a word with no single English equivalent. The nearest analogue to tanru in English are combinations of two nouns such as “lemon tree”. There is no way to tell just by looking at the phrase “lemon tree” exactly what it refers to, even if you know the meanings of “lemon” and “tree” by themselves. As English-speakers, we must simply know that it refers to “a tree which bears lemons as fruits”. A person who didn't know English very well might think of it as analogous to “brown tree” and wonder, “What kind of tree is lemon-colored?”

In Lojban, tanru are also used for the same purposes as English adjective-noun combinations like “big boy” and adverb-verb combinations like “quickly run”. This is a consequence of Lojban not having any such categories as “noun”, “verb”, “adjective”, or “adverb”. English words belonging to any of these categories are translated by simple brivla in Lojban. Here are some examples of tanru:

Example 5.6

tu	pelnimre	tricu
That-yonder	is-a-lemon	tree.

That is a lemon tree.

Example 5.7

la	djan.	barda	nanla
That-named	John	is-a-big	boy.

John is a big boy.

Example 5.8

mi	sutra	bajra
I	quick	run

I quickly run./I run quickly.

Note that pelnimre is a lujvo for “lemon”; it is derived from the gismu pelxu, yellow, and nimre, citrus. Note also that sutra can mean “fast/quick” or “quickly” depending on its use:

Example 5.9

mi	sutra
I	am-fast/quick

shows sutra used to translate an adjective, whereas in Example 5.8 (p. 80) it is translating an adverb. (Another correct translation of Example 5.8 (p. 80), however, would be “I am a quick runner”.)

There are special Lojban terms for the two components of a tanru, derived from the place structure of the word tanru. The first component is called the seltau, and the second component is called the tertau.

The most important rule for use in interpreting tanru is that the tertau carries the primary meaning. A pelnimre tricu is primarily a tree, and only secondarily is it connected with lemons in some way. For this reason, an alternative translation of Example 5.6 (p. 80) would be:

Example 5.10

That is a lemon type of tree.

This “type of” relationship between the components of a tanru is fundamental to the tanru concept.

We may also say that the seltau modifies the meaning of the tertau:

Example 5.11

That is a tree which is lemon-ish (in the way appropriate to trees)

would be another possible translation of Example 5.6 (p. 80). In the same way, a more explicit translation of Example 5.7 (p. 80) might be:

Example 5.12

John is a boy who is big in the way that boys are big.

This “way that boys are big” would be quite different from the way in which elephants are big; big-for-a-boy is small-for-an-elephant.

All tanru are ambiguous semantically. Possible translations of:

Example 5.13

ta	klama	jubme
That	is-a-goer	type-of-table.

include:

That is a table which goes (a wheeled table, perhaps).

That is a table owned by one who goes.

That is a table used by those who go (a sports doctor's table?).

That is a table when it goes (otherwise it is a chair?).

In each case the object referred to is a “goer type of table”, but the ambiguous “type of” relationship can mean one of many things. A speaker who uses tanru (and pragmatically all speakers must) takes the risk of being misunderstood. Using tanru is convenient because they are short and expressive; the circumlocution required to squeeze out all ambiguity can require too much effort.

No general theory covering the meaning of all possible tanru exists; probably no such theory can exist. However, some regularities obviously do exist:

Example 5.14

do	barda	prenu
You	are-a-large	person.

Example 5.15

do	cmalu	prenu
You	are-a-small	person.

are parallel tanru, in the sense that the relationship between barda and prenu is the same as that between cmalu and prenu. Section 5.14 (p. 101) and Section 5.15 (p. 108) contain a partial listing of some types of tanru, with examples.

5.3 Three-part tanru grouping with bo

The following cmavo is discussed in this section:

bo

BO

closest scope grouping

Consider the English sentence:

Example 5.16

That's a little girls' school.

What does it mean? Two possible readings are:

Example 5.17

That's a little school for girls.

Example 5.18

That's a school for little girls.

This ambiguity is quite different from the simple tanru ambiguity described in Section 5.2 (p. 80). We understand that “girls' school” means “a school where girls are the students”, and not “a school where girls are the teachers” or “a school which is a girl” (!). Likewise, we understand that “little girl” means “girl who is small”. This is an ambiguity of grouping. Is “girls' school” to be taken as a unit, with “little” specifying the type of girls' school? Or is “little girl” to be taken as a unit, specifying the type of school? In English speech, different tones of voice, or exaggerated speech rhythm showing the grouping, are used to make the distinction; English writing usually leaves it unrepresented.

Lojban makes no use of tones of voice for any purpose; explicit words are used to do the work. The cmavo bo (which belongs to selma'o BO) may be placed between the two brivla which are most closely associated. Therefore, a Lojban translation of Example 5.17 (p. 82) would be:

Example 5.19

ta	cmalu	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-small	girl	-	school.

Example 5.18 (p. 82) might be translated:

Example 5.20

ta	cmalu	bo	nixli	ckule
That	is-a-small	-	girl	school.

The bo is represented in the literal translation by a bracketed hyphen (not to be confused with the bare hyphen used as a placeholder in other glosses) because in written English a hyphen is sometimes used for the same purpose: “a big dog-catcher” would be quite different from a “big-dog catcher” (presumably someone who catches only big dogs).

Analysis of Example 5.19 (p. 82) and Example 5.20 (p. 82) reveals a tanru nested within a tanru. In Example 5.19 (p. 82), the main tanru has a seltau of cmalu and a tertau of nixli bo ckule; the tertau is itself a tanru with nixli as the seltau and ckule as the tertau. In Example 5.20 (p. 82), on the other hand, the seltau is cmalu bo nixli (itself a tanru), whereas the tertau is ckule. This structure of tanru nested within tanru forms the basis for all the more complex types of selbri that will be explained below.

What about Example 5.21 (p. 82)? What does it mean?

Example 5.21

ta	cmalu	nixli	ckule
That	is-a-small	girl	school.

The rules of Lojban do not leave this sentence ambiguous, as the rules of English do with Example 5.16 (p. 82). The choice made by the language designers is to say that Example 5.21 (p. 82) means the same as Example 5.20 (p. 82). This is true no matter what three brivla are used: the leftmost two are always grouped together. This rule is called the “left-grouping rule”. Left-grouping in seemingly ambiguous structures is quite common – though not universal – in other contexts in Lojban.

Another way to express the English meaning of Example 5.19 (p. 82) and Example 5.20 (p. 82), using parentheses to mark grouping, is:

Example 5.22

ta	cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-small	type-of	(girl	type-of	school).

Example 5.23

ta	cmalu	bo	nixli		ckule
That	is-a-(small	type-of	girl)	type-of	school.

Because “type-of” is implicit in the Lojban tanru form, it has no Lojban equivalent.

Note: It is perfectly legal, though pointless, to insert bo into a simple tanru:

Example 5.24

ta	klama	bo	jubme
That	is-a-goer	-	table.

is a legal Lojban bridi that means exactly the same thing as Example 5.13 (p. 81), and is ambiguous in exactly the same ways. The cmavo bo serves only to resolve grouping ambiguity: it says nothing about the more basic ambiguity present in all tanru.

5.4 Complex tanru grouping

If one element of a tanru can be another tanru, why not both elements?

Example 5.25

do	mutce	bo	barda	gerku	bo	kavbu
You	are-a-(very	type-of	large)	(dog	type-of	capturer).

You are a very large dog-catcher.

In Example 5.25 (p. 83), the selbri is a tanru with seltau mutce bo barda and tertau gerku bo kavbu. It is worth emphasizing once again that this tanru has the same fundamental ambiguity as all other Lojban tanru: the sense in which the “dog type-of capturer” is said to be “very type-of large” is not precisely specified. Presumably it is his body which is large, but theoretically it could be one of his other properties.

We will now justify the title of this chapter by exploring the ramifications of the phrase “pretty little girls' school”, an expansion of the tanru used in Section 5.3 (p. 82) to four brivla. (Although this example has been used in the Loglan Project almost since the beginning – it first appeared in Quine's book Word and Object (1960) – it is actually a mediocre example because of the ambiguity of English “pretty”; it can mean “beautiful”, the sense intended here, or it can mean “very”. Lojban melbi is not subject to this ambiguity: it means only “beautiful”.)

Here are four ways to group this phrase:

Example 5.26

ta	melbi		cmalu		nixli		ckule
That	is-a-((pretty	type-of	little)	type-of	girl)	type-of	school.

That is a school for girls who are beautifully small.

Example 5.27

ta	melbi		cmalu	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-(pretty	type-of	little)	(girl	type-of	school).

That is a girls' school which is beautifully small.

Example 5.28

ta	melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli		ckule
That	is-a-(pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	girl))	type-of	school.

That is a school for small girls who are beautiful.

Example 5.29

ta	melbi		cmalu	bo	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(little	type-of	(girl	type-of	school)).

That is a small school for girls which is beautiful.

Example 5.29 (p. 84) uses a construction which has not been seen before: cmalu bo nixli bo ckule, with two consecutive uses of bo between brivla. The rule for multiple bo constructions is the opposite of the rule when no bo is present at all: the last two are grouped together. Not surprisingly, this is called the “right-grouping rule”, and it is associated with every use of bo in the language. Therefore,

Example 5.30

ta	cmalu	bo	nixli	bo	ckule
That	is-a-little	type-of	(girl	type-of	school).

means the same as Example 5.19 (p. 82), not Example 5.20 (p. 82). This rule may seem peculiar at first, but one of its consequences is that bo is never necessary between the first two elements of any of the complex tanru presented so far: all of Example 5.26 (p. 83) through Example 5.29 (p. 84) could have bo inserted between melbi and cmalu with no change in meaning.

5.5 Complex tanru with ke and ke'e

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

ke	KE	start grouping
ke'e	KEhE	end grouping

There is, in fact, a fifth grouping of “pretty little girls' school” that cannot be expressed with the resources explained so far. To handle it, we must introduce the grouping parentheses cmavo, ke and ke'e (belonging to selma'o KE and KEhE respectively). Any portion of a selbri sandwiched between these two cmavo is taken to be a single tanru component, independently of what is adjacent to it. Thus, Example 5.26 (p. 83) can be rewritten in any of the following ways:

Example 5.31

ta	ke	melbi	cmalu	ke'e	nixli	ckule
That	is-a-(	pretty	little	)	girl	school.

Example 5.32

ta	ke	ke	melbi	cmalu	ke'e	nixli	ke'e	ckule
That	is-a-(	(	pretty	little	)	girl	)	school.

Example 5.33

ta	ke	ke	ke	melbi	cmalu	ke'e	nixli	ke'e	ckule	ke'e
That	is-a-(	(	(	pretty	little	)	girl	)	school	).

Even more versions could be created simply by placing any number of ke cmavo at the beginning of the selbri, and a like number of ke'e cmavo at its end. Obviously, all of these are a waste of breath once the left-grouping rule has been grasped. However, the following is equivalent to Example 5.28 (p. 84) and may be easier to understand:

Example 5.34

ta		melbi		ke	cmalu		nixli	ke'e			ckule
That	is-a-(	pretty	type-of	(	little	type-of	girl	)	)	type-of	school.

Likewise, a ke and ke'e version of Example 5.27 (p. 83) would be:

Example 5.35

ta	melbi		cmalu	ke	nixli		ckule	[ke'e]
That	is-a-(pretty	type-of	little)	(	girl	type-of	school	).

The final ke'e is given in square brackets here to indicate that it can be elided. It is always possible to elide ke'e at the end of the selbri, making Example 5.35 (p. 85) as terse as Example 5.27 (p. 83).

Now how about that fifth grouping? It is

Example 5.36

ta	melbi		ke		cmalu		nixli		ckule	[ke'e]
That	is-a-pretty	type-of (	(	little	type-of	girl	)	type-of	school	).

That is a beautiful school for small girls.

Example 5.36 (p. 85) is distinctly different in meaning from any of Example 5.26 (p. 83) through Example 5.29 (p. 84). Note that within the ke…ke'e parentheses, the left-grouping rule is applied to cmalu nixli ckule.

It is perfectly all right to mix bo and ke…ke'e in a single selbri. For instance, Example 5.29 (p. 84), which in pure ke…ke'e form is

Example 5.37

ta	melbi		ke	cmalu		ke	nixli		ckule	[ke'e]	[ke'e]
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(	little	type-of	(	girl	type-of	school	)	).

can equivalently be expressed as:

Example 5.38

ta	melbi		ke	cmalu		nixli	bo	ckule	[ke'e]
That	is-a-pretty	type-of	(	little	type-of-(	girl	type-of	school	)).

and in many other different forms as well.

5.6 Logical connection within tanru

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

je	JA	tanru logical “and”
ja	JA	tanru logical “or”
joi	JOI	mixed mass “and”
gu'e	GUhA	tanru forethought logical “and”
gi	GI	forethought connection separator

Consider the English phrase “big red dog”. How shall this be rendered as a Lojban tanru? The naive attempt:

Example 5.39

barda		xunre		gerku
(big	type-of	red)	type-of	dog

will not do, as it means a dog whose redness is big, in whatever way redness might be described as “big”. Nor is

Example 5.40

barda		xunre	bo	gerku
big	type-of	(red	type-of	dog)

much better. After all, the straightforward understanding of the English phrase is that the dog is big as compared with other dogs, not merely as compared with other red dogs. In fact, the bigness and redness are independent properties of the dog, and only obscure rules of English adjective ordering prevent us from saying “red big dog”. Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/86 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/87 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/88 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/89 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/90 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/91 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/92 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/93 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/94 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/95 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/96 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/97 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/98 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/99 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/100 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/101 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/102 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/103 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/104 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/105 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/106 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/107 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/108 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/109 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/110 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/111 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/112 Page:CLL v1.1.pdf/113