NOTE: Draft version
This is a work in progress.
Selma'o to be covered: FAhO NIhO I MAI TUhE TUhU ZOhU
- fa'o (FAhO)
- end of text — unconditional end of text; outside regular grammar; used for computer input --
- ni'o (NIhO)
- new topic — discursive: paragraph break; introduce new topic --
- no'i (NIhO)
- old topic — discursive: paragraph break; resume previous topic --
- .i (I)
- sentence link — sentence link/continuation; continuing sentences on same topic; normally elided for new speakers --
- mai (MAI)
- sentence ordinal — utterance ordinal suffix; converts a number to an ordinal, such as an item or paragraph number --
- mo'o (MAI)
- section ordinal — higher-order utterance ordinal suffix; converts a number to ordinal, usually a section/chapter --
- tu'e (TUhE)
- start text scope — start of multiple utterance scope; used for logical/non-logical/ordinal joining of sentences --
- tu'u (TUhU)
- end text scope — elidable terminator: end multiple utterance scope; seldom elidable --
- zo'u (ZOhU)
- end prenex — marks end of logical prenex quantifiers/topic identification and start of sentence bridi --
Prior usage and discussion
fa'o
Evidently intended only for machine input.
ni'o
Seems to be used mostly parallel to paragraph breaks in natural languages. See http://www.lojban.org/, http://www.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9312/msg00394.html, and http://www.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9107/msg00052.html. On IRC, which is indicative of spoken language, this appears to have more of a meaning of changing the subject. Examples: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/lojban/irclog/lojban/2004_06_02-02_21.txt, http://www.digitalkingdom.org/lojban/irclog/lojban/2002_05_12--2002_11_28.txt.
i
Ubiquitous. This is used mostly in front of sentences that are not the first sentence in the text. Sometimes also the first sentence in the text is prefixed with .i.
no'i
Does not appear to have had any usage.
tu'e - tu'u
tu'e - tu'u seems to be used mainly to be used to set off a large block of text and refer to it metalinguisticially. For instance, there is a (very large) mailing list thread called loi preti be fi lo nincli zo'u tu'e. Also lots of poetry are prefixed with titles that uses di'e to refer to the body of the poem, set of with tu'e.
zo'u
Marks the end of a prenex. A prenex can have one or more terms, which may constrain the instantiation of logical variables in the main sentence. Prenexes are also used as a topic field.
Text structure cmavo
MAI is postfix, this was probably decided to make it analogous to mei, moi, roi, and re'u. However, this serves to make the grammar of Lojban non-LALR(1), because the parser may have to look through an arbitrarily large numeral string to decvide that it actually belongs in a free modifier. This should not be a problem if Robin's PEG parser is made official. If Robin's PEG parser is not made official, however, extensive pre-processing will be required.
- fa'o
- Marks the end of input to be parsed.
- i
- Starts a new sentence.
- mai
- Enumerates a point in the text. Combines with the preceding numeral to make a free modifier.
- mai
- Enumerates a higher-level section in the text. Combines with the preceding numeral to make a free modifier.
- ni'o
- Marks the start of a parapgraph and a change of subject. Multiple "ni'o" in a row means higher-level section breaks.
- no'i
- Marks the start of a paragraph and change back to the previous subject.
- tu'e
- Starts a group of sentences. The group acts as a single sentence externally, for purposes such as logical operators.
- tu'u
- Terminator for tu'e.
- zo'u
- Marks the end of a prenex. A prenex can consist of one or more terms. This is understood from the YACC grammar. Do I need to define a term here?
Draft keywords
- fa'o
- The End. parsing ends here. end parsing here.
- i
- and then.
- mai
- -stly. -ndly. -thly.
- mo'o
- -st section. -nd section. -rd section.
- ni'o
- continuing to the next topic.
- no'i
- returning to the previous topic.
- zo'u
- so that. such that.