History: BPFK Section: Text Structure cmavo

Preview of version: 28

Prior usage and discussion

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.

ni'o implicitly cancels some assignments, depending on the number of consecutive ni'o and whether the text is spoken or written. The following table is due to CLL pp. 446--447.

Number of consecutive ni'oWrittenSpoken
ni'ono effectcancel KOhA and GOhA
ni'oni'ocancel KOhA and GOhAcancel KOhA and GOhA and tenses
ni'oni'oni'ocancel KOhA and GOhA and tensescancel KOhA and GOhA and tenses

Examples of ni'o Usage


A: ni'o mi ca'o kelci lo samselkei
B: .i .ua go'i lo samselkei no'u ma
A: .i go'i la'o gy. Final Fantasy .gy.
B: .i .io mi nelci
A: ni'o mi djica lo nu citka
B: no'i mi djica lo nu jbera fi do
A: .i je'e

Notes

I did not include a natural example because the usage is wide, varied, and mostly incorrect between spoken, e-mailed, IRC'd, and written Lojban. It should be used for starting new topics of discussion, which as a by-product also clears KOhA and GOhA as well as sticky tenses (IIRC). It is not a paragraph marker (whitespace can be used for that and nobody said how much whitespace is allowed), it is a topic marker.

Issues


Proposed dictionary entries

cmavo: fa'o (FAhO)

Proposed Definition

Unless quoted by "zo" or "lo'u" — "le'u", turned into a quote delimiter by zoi, or acting as part of a lujvo made by a preceding "zei", marks the end of input to be parsed. Any remaining text is to be disregarded.

See Also

  • {fe'o}
  • {fanmo}

Proposed Keywords

  • The End.
  • parsing ends here
  • end parsing here

Usage Examples

There is no usage other than quotes or jokes in English. The only usage that could be deemed correct is a single fa'o at the end of the Berenstein Bears books or other books.

Notes

Described as unconditional end of parsing. Evidently intended only for machine input. Sometimes used in the sense of "the end". Some erroneous uses, such as inside of tu'e — tu'u groups. See 1 I see no reason to legalise this practice, since fe'o is available for this purpose.

cmavo: i (I)

Proposed Definition

Starts a new sentence.

See Also

  • {ni'o}
  • {no'i}
  • {tu'e}
  • {fa'o}

Proposed Keywords

  • and then

Usage Examples

(see ni'o)

Notes

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. (However, this is incorrect.)

It is used to indicate the beginning of a new jufra continuing on the topic established with ni'o.

cmavo: mai (MAI)

Proposed Definition

Enumerates a point in the text. Combines with the preceding numeral to make a free modifier, which can be placed almost anywhere in a text.

See Also

  • {mo'o}

Proposed Keywords

  • -stly
  • -ndly
  • -thly

Usage Examples

Notes

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 decide 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.

cmavo: mo'o (MAI)

Proposed Definition

Enumerates a higher-level section or chapter in the text. Combines with the preceding numeral to make a free modifier, which can be placed almost anywhere in a text.

See Also

  • {mai}

Proposed Keywords

  • -st section
  • -nd section
  • -rd section

Usage Examples

Notes

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 decide 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.

cmavo: ni'o (NIhO)

Proposed Definition

Marks the start of a paragraph and a change of subject. Multiple "ni'o" in a row means higher-level section breaks. In written contexts, two or more consecutive "ni'o" cancels the assignment of pro-sumti and pro-bridi in the selma'o KOhA and GOhA, respectively, and three or more consecutive "ni'o" additionally cancels all current tenses. In spoken contexts, a single or several consecutive "ni'o" cancels the assignment of pro-sumti and pro-bridi in the selma'o KOhA and GOhA, respectively, while two or more consecutive "ni'o" additionally cancels all current tenses.

See Also

  • {no'i}

Proposed Keywords

  • continuing to the next topic

Usage Examples

Artificial:

A: ni'o mi ca'o kelci lo samselkei

B: .i .ua go'i lo samselkei no'u ma

A: .i go'i la'o gy. Final Fantasy .gy.

B: .i .io mi nelci

A: ni'o mi djica lo nu citka

B: no'i mi djica lo nu jbera fi do

A: .i je'e

cmavo: no'i (NIhO)

Proposed Definition

Marks the start of a paragraph and change back to a previous subject. If no'i has a positive or zero subscript, it indicates the continuation of an earlier topic that was introduced with the word ni'o with the same subscript. If no'i has a negative subscript, it is a resumption of the topic of the paragraph found by counting backwards, starting with the paragraph before the one introduced with ni'o.

See Also

  • {ni'o}
  • {i}
  • {ta'o nai}

Proposed Keywords

  • returning to the previous topic

Usage Examples

no'i la xrist. ba cpacu loi vanju mu'i lenu pinxe kei gi'e te preti fo ko'a felenu ko'a djica lenu la xrist. dunda dakau ko'a
"Christ then took wine to drink, and asked the man what he wanted Christ to give him."

From the translation of "Cardplayer", by Nick Nicholas. 2

no'i mi pu co'a mutce kurji lo nu jmina la jbovlaste
"Anyway, I take great care about additions to Jbovlaste." 3


Also see example at {ni'o}.

cmavo: tu'e (TUhE)

Proposed Definition

Starts a text scope, which is a group of sentences. The text scope acts as a single sentence externally, for purposes such as logical operators.

See Also

  • {tu'u}

Proposed Keywords

Usage Examples

Usage is contended. No consistent natural examples exist. Arbitrary examples follow:

  • ro da pa de zo'u tu'e da gerku .ije de mlatu tu'u .inaja da jersi de
  • .i la robin. kakne lo nu djuno tu'e lo se pensi be da
  • mi nelci lo nu pilno zo ka'u va'o tu'e le jboklu

Notes

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.

cmavo: tu'u (TUhU)

Proposed Definition

Ends a text scope. Elidable terminator for tu'e.

See Also

  • {tu'e}

Proposed Keywords

  • end of text scope
  • terminator

Usage Examples

See {tu'e}.

cmavo: zo'u (ZOhU)

Proposed Definition

Marks the end of a prenex. A prenex can occur at the beginning of the sentence, and consists of one or more terms. A term is either a sumti or a sumti preceded by a tense or modal tag. The primary use of a prenex is for quantifying logical variables prior to their use in the sentence and/or sentences that are joined to it by a logical connective. Terms that do not quantify logical variables are instead interpreted as 'topics' of the containing sentence, and any sentences that are joined to it by a logical connective.

See Also

Proposed Keywords

  • so that
  • such that

Usage Examples

i lo do solri nu canci zo'u do ba lifri i mi ba mi'ecpe
Your sun-like vanishing exists such that you will experience it. I will demand it.

Notes

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.


Interaction with other sections

  • The wording of the definition of "fa'o" must be watched closely to prevent contradictions with BPFK Section: Nonce connectives.
  • The selma'o MAI probably requires either preprocessing prior to YACC, or a PEG grammar.

Notes

TUhU 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.

NIhO should *NOT* have different uffects depending on the medium it is in. rlpowell agrees. (I don't like how "ni'o"*N resets various things depending on N. Can't tense be reset using KI?) - .djeims./purpleposeidon/neptunepink (+1 check out my notes by the applicable words. -Lindar)

Impact

It is my belief that this section does not invalidate actual usages that were previously valid, nor does it contradict current prescription of the language.

  • Clarification: topic resumption by label applies if no'i has a positive or zero subscript.
  • Clarification: topic resumption by back-counting starts at section before the one currently being introduced.
  • Clarification: the implication that any term in a prenex is either a bound variable or a topic (CLL p. 467) is made explicit.


History

Advanced
Information Version
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:24 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding word links. 29
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:23 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding word links. 28
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:22 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Copying {ni'o}'s usage example to its dictionary entry box 27
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:17 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding {} around a cmavo. 26
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:15 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Moving {no'i}'s exemples to their due place (2nd step). 25
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:12 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Moving {no'i}'s exemples to their due place (first step). 24
Sun 24 of Aug, 2014 22:05 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding word links. 23
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 19:03 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding a word link. 22
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 19:02 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding a word link. 21
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 19:02 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Adding a couple of keywords. 20
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 18:59 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Merging the "Prior usage and discussion" section with the definition boxes (#3). 19
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 18:54 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Merging the "Prior usage and discussion" section with the definition boxes (#2). 18
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 18:51 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Minor formatting. 17
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 18:49 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Merging the "Prior usage and discussion" section with the definition boxes (first step). 16
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 18:35 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Moving the keywords into the definition boxes. 15
Sat 23 of Aug, 2014 18:28 GMT Ilmen from 95.210.209.219 Reformatting. 14
Tue 10 of Jun, 2014 03:33 GMT mukti from 68.173.146.212 13
Fri 15 of Oct, 2010 23:28 GMT lindarthebard from 32.174.46.157 12
Fri 15 of Oct, 2010 21:09 GMT purpleposeidon from 128.120.185.88 la'e zo ni'o bebna 11
Fri 15 of Oct, 2010 20:58 GMT lindarthebard from 32.174.46.157 10
Fri 15 of Oct, 2010 03:20 GMT eyeonus from 132.178.238.2 9
Sun 30 of Jan, 2005 11:11 GMT arj from 129.241.93.194 Updated zo'u per rlpowell's suggestions: made explicit that prenexes occur at the beginning; explained "term"; clarified that prenexes also take effect in linked sentences. 8
Sat 29 of Jan, 2005 20:16 GMT arj from 129.241.222.14 Implemented suggestions by Robin Lee Powell 7
Thu 30 of Dec, 2004 17:34 GMT arj from 195.204.8.64 fixed botched wiki-markup. 6
Sun 21 of Nov, 2004 19:41 GMT arj from 129.241.222.178 formatting 5
Sun 21 of Nov, 2004 13:12 GMT arj from 129.241.222.187 fixed broken color syntax 4
Mon 15 of Nov, 2004 14:48 GMT arj from 66.134.26.207 Fixed zo'e -> zo'u 3
Mon 15 of Nov, 2004 01:52 GMT rlpowell from 64.81.49.171 2
Sun 14 of Nov, 2004 12:04 GMT arj from 129.241.93.213 Some usage surveys 1