Begin quotation. Starts a fully grammatical quotation. Quoted text must be grammatically correct Lojban, even if it were to be presented on its own. The terminator for "lu", which is seldom elidable, is "li'u".
End quotation. The cmavo "li'u" is the elidable terminator that ends grammatical quotations begun by "lu". Quoted text must be grammatically correct Lojban, even if it were to be presented on its own. It is seldom elidable except at end of text.
See li'u usage above.
LIhU is currently seldom elidable. I believe that currently it is only elidable at the end of text. It is the belief of .xorxes., me, and possibly others that it should never be elidable. - .aionys.
Begin error quotation. Starts a questionable or out of context quotation. Text must be Lojban words, but needn't be grammatical. The terminator for "lo'u" is "le'u"; it is never elidable. All Lojban words inside a lo'u...le'u quote lose their usual grammatical function. Sometimes, "lo'u" quoting is used when the text is grammatical, either because the user wishes just to quote the words by themselves, out of context, or so the user doesn't have to think about whether the utterance might be grammatical or not. For grammatical purposes, "lo'u" converts all following Lojban words up to and including the nearest "le'u" to the right into a single word of the pseudo selma'o any-string; this word acts as a sumti in all respects. The selma'o of "lo'u" and "le'u" are retained for "sa" matching purposes, however. In other words, "sa lo'u" destroys everything since the beginning of the last lo'u...le'u quote, replacing it with a new lo'u, and "sa le'u" destroys everything since the end of the last lo'u...le'u quote, replacing the terminating "le'u" with a new "le'u" (i.e. not changing the quote at all). lo'u...le'u quotes cannot be re-opened; to attach more information to a closed quote, use "joi" followed by another lo'u...le'u quote. To quote a lo'u...le'u quote including the le'u, use zoi. In the case of an apparent conflict, the effects of this word (and all other words that change the grammatical effects of nearby words) should be read left to right.
In this case, the user apparently mis-spelled "cpacu". The result, "spacu", is still technically valid Lojban, and could have been quoted with zo, but is not currently an actual gismu.
The following examples are intended to illustrate interactions of lo'u...le'u with other words of special grammatical effect, and hence may be pathological.
End error quotation. The cmavo "le'u" is the terminator for "lo'u". It ends a quotation of questionable or out of context text. It is never elidable.
See lo'u usage above.
{BOX}
One word quotation. Quotes the next word only. Quotes a single Lojban word. It does not quote entire constructs of any kind, only their first word. For grammatical purposes, "zo" binds with the following word. The combination is considered a single word of the pseudo selma'o any-word (this word acts as a sumti in all respects) except for "sa" matching purposes, where it retains the selma'o "zo". In the case of an apparent conflict, the effects of this word (and all other words that change the grammatical effects of nearby words) should be read left to right.
The following examples are intended to illustrate interactions of zo with other words of special grammatical effect, and hence may be pathological.
{BOX}
Non-Lojban quotation. Creates a delimited non-Lojban quotation. The result treated as single Lojban word. "zoi" uses the following Lojban word as a delimiting word and quotes all further text until the same word is repeated. Both instances of the delimiter word lose their usual grammatical function, as do any Lojban words that might be inside the quote. The delimiting word is separated from the quoted text by pauses, and must not be found in the written text or spoken phoneme stream. For grammatical purposes, "zoi" binds with both delimiter words and all the quoted text. The combination is considered a single word of the pseudo selma'o any-string (this word acts as a sumti in all respects) except for SA matching purposes, where it retains the selma'o ZOI. In the case of an apparent conflict, the effects of this word (and all other words that change the grammatical effects of nearby words) should be read left to right.
The following examples are intended to illustrate interactions of zoi with other words of special grammatical effect, and hence may be pathological.
Non-Lojban name quotation. Creates a delimited non-Lojban name. The resulting quote sumti is treated as a name. The result is treated as a single word. The cmavo "la'o" is approximately equivalent to "lo se cmene be zoi", when the zoi clause quotes a name. "la'o" uses the following Lojban word as a delimiting word and quotes all further text until the same word is repeated. Both delimiter words lose their usual grammatical function, as do any Lojban words that might be inside the quote. For grammatical purposes, "la'o" binds with both delimiter words and all the quoted text. The combination is considered a single word of the pseudo selma'o any-string (this word acts as a sumti in all respects) except for SA matching purposes, where it retains the selma'o ZOI. In the case of an apparent conflict, the effects of this word (and all other words that change the grammatical effects of nearby words) should be read left to right.
For more examples, see the examples of zoi usage above; la'o is grammatically equivalent to zoi.
For lots and lots of notes and discussion on what led to these definitions, see Magic Words.