History: Lojban Tutorial: Lesson 3

Source of version: 4 (current)

!Lesson 3 !!Commands, Requests and Questions So far we've looked at simple propositions, sentences that say that something is true. You can, in theory, say anything you want with propositions, but it's pretty inconvenient. For example, if I want you to run, I could say just that: "I want you to run" but I'd probably just say: "Run!" How do we do this in Lojban? We can't copy English grammar and just say ''__bajra''__, since, as we've seen, this means "Someone/something runs". Instead we say ''__ko bajra''__ ''__ko''__ means you, the person I'm talking to, but only in commands (in normal sentences it's ''__do''__). Normally it comes in the first place of the ''__bridi''__, since normally you're asking people to do something or be something, not to have something done to them. However, you can put it elsewhere, e.g. ''__nelci ko''__ This means something like "Act so that [[someone unspecified] likes you", and sounds pretty odd in English, but you could use it in the sense of "Try to make a good impression." Another example is: ''__mi dunda le cifnu ko''__ or "Act so that I give the baby to you," with the possible meaning "Get up and put your cigarette out~--~I'm going to pass you the baby." You can even have ''__ko''__ in two places in a ''__bridi''__, for example, ;''__ko kurji ko''__:[[Act so that] you take care of you or in other words, "Take care of yourself." In fact, since we can put the ''__selbri''__ anywhere other than the beginning of the sentence (since this would imply "someone/something" for the first place), we can (and do) say ''__ko ko kurji''__ !!!Exercise 1 Imagine that someone says these things to you. What is it that they want you to do? # ''__ko klama mi''__ # ''__ko dunda le cukta mi''__ # ''__la .izaBEL. nelci ko''__ # ''__ko sutra''__ # ''__ko ko nelci''__ So far we've looked at simple commands. However, outside the army, we don't normally use these very much~--~normally we ask people politely. Foreigners in England often make the mistake of thinking that putting "Please" in front of a command makes it into a polite request, which it doesn't (in English we usually have to make it into a question e.g. "Could you open the window?"). Fortunately, in Lojban, "please" really is the magic word. Putting the attitudinal ''__.e'o''__ before a sentence with ''__ko''__ changes it into a request e.g. ''__.e'o ko dunda le cukta mi''__ is literally "Please give me the book," but is actually more like "Could you give me the book, please?" !!Questions In English, we make a yes/no question by changing the order of the words (e.g. "You are ..." -> "Are you ...") or putting some form of "do" at the beginning (e.g. "Does she smoke?"). This seems perfectly natural to someone whose native language is English (or German, or whatever) but is actually unnecessarily complicated (as any speaker of Chinese or Turkish will tell you). In Lojban we can turn any proposition into a yes/no question by simply putting ''__xu''__ at the beginning. Some examples: ;''__xu do nelci la bil.''__:Do you like Bill? ;''__xu mi klama''__:Am I coming? ;''__xu crino''__:Is it green? There are two ways to answer these questions. Lojban, like some other languages, does not have words that mean "yes" or "no". One way to answer "yes" is to repeat the ''__selbri''__ e.g. * ''__xu do nelci la bil.''__ * ''__nelci''__ We can also use ''__go'i''__, which repeats the last ''__bridi''__. In this case, though, it doesn't mean ''__do nelci la bil.''__ but ''__mi nelci la bil.''__~--~it is the __meaning__, rather than the words of the ''__bridi''__ which are repeated. In other words, in an answer to a yes/no question, it means "yes". What about negative answers? Any ''__bridi''__ can be made negative by using ''__na''__. This negates the __whole__ of the ''__bridi''__, so you can put it anywhere you want~--~most people either put it right at the beginning, or before the ''__selbri''__ (I prefer the beginning, since then it is clearer that I'm negating the whole thing). So ''__na mi nelci la bil.''__ means "It is not true that I like Bill," or in other words, "I don't like Bill." As an answer to a question, we do the same thing, so we just say ''__na nelci''__ or ''__na go'i''__. __Logical note:__ Negatives are a lot more complicated than they look, in both English and Lojban. Strictly speaking, ''__na mi nelci la bil.''__ is true even if I've never heard of Bill (since it's pretty hard to like someone you know nothing about). We'll look at some other negatives later, but for the time being ''__na''__ will do fine. Just as in English, if you ask someone if they like Bill, and they reply "No" because they haven't met him, they're being amazingly unhelpful. English also has a number of "wh-" questions~--~"who", "what" etc. In Lojban we use one word for all of these: ''__ma''__. This is like an instruction to fill in the missing place. For example: ;''__do klama ma la london.''__:"Where are you going?" "London" ;''__ma klama la london. la klaudias.''__:"Who's going to London?" "Claudia." ;''__mi dunda ma do le cukta''__:"I give what to you?" (probably meaning "What was it I was supposed to be giving you?") "The book." Finally we have ''__mo''__. This is like ''__ma''__, but questions a ''__selbri''__, not a ''__sumti''__~--~it's like English "What does X do?" or "What is X?" (remember being and doing are the same!). More logically, we can see ''__mo''__ as asking someone to describe the relationship between the ''__sumti''__ in the question. For example: ;''__do mo la klaudias.''__:"You ??? Claudia" The answer depends on the context. Possible answers to this question are: ;''__nelci''__:"I like her." ;''__pendo''__:"I am her friend" ;''__prami''__:"I adore/am in love with her." ;''__xebni''__:"I hate her." ;''__fengu''__:"I'm angry with her." ;''__cinba''__:"I kissed her." Note that the time is not important here: just as ''__cinba''__ can mean "kiss", "kissed", "will kiss" and so on, ''__mo''__ does not ask a question about any particular time. There __are__ ways to specify time in Lojban, but it's not necessary to use them (just to satisfy your curiosity though, "I kiss__ed__ Claudia" is ''__mi __pu__ cinba la klaudias.''__). We've said that ''__mo''__ can also be a "What is ..." type of question. The simplest example is ''__ti mo''__~--~"What is this?". You could also ask ''__la meilis. mo''__, which could mean "Who is Mei Li?", "What is Mei Li?", "What is Mei Li doing?" and so on. Again, the answer depends on the context. For example: ;''__ninmu''__:"She's a woman." ;''__jungo''__:"She's Chinese." ;''__pulji''__:"She's a policewoman." ;''__sanga''__:"She's a singer" __or__ "She's singing." ;''__melbi''__:"She's beautiful." (possibly a pun, since this is what "meili" means in Chinese!) There are ways to be more specific, but these normally involve a ''__ma''__ question; for example ''__la meilis. gasnu ma''__ ("Mei Li does what?"). There are more question words in Lojban, but ''__xu''__, ''__ma''__ and ''__mo''__ are enough for most of what you might want to ask. Three other important questions, ''__xo''__ ("How many?") ''__ca ma''__ ("When?) and ''__pei''__ ("How do you feel about it?") will come in the lessons on numbers, time and attitudes. !!!Exercise 2: Lojban general knowledge quiz Answer the following questions (in Lojban, of course). Most of the answers are very easy; the trick is to understand the question! # ''__la brutus. mo la .iulius.''__ # ''__ma prami la djuliet.''__ # ''__xu la paris. nenri la .iunaityd.steits.''__ # ''__ma ciska la .anas.kaREninas.''__ # ''__xu la porc. sutra''__ # ''__la .ozuald. catra ma''__ # ''__xu la djorj.eliot. ninmu''__ # ''__la sakiamunis. mo''__ # ''__la cekspir. ciska ma''__ # ''__la dolorez.kleiborn. mo''__ # ''__xu la xardis. fengu la lorel.''__ !!Answers to Exercises !!!Exercise 1 # Come to me. # Give me the book. # Act so that Isabel likes you (or "Butter up Isabel" perhaps) # Be fast ("Hurry up!") # Like yourself. (note that changing the word order doesn't change the meaning here) !!!Exercise 2 # ''__catra''__ (assuming it's Julius Caesar we're talkin about) # ''__la romios.''__ (assuming it's __that__ Juliet) # ''__na nenri''__ or ''__na go'i''__, unless we're talking about Paris, Texas. # ''__la tolstois.''__ # Trick question. ''__la''__ can name a specific Porsche, not Porsches in general, so it might go fast or not (e.g. it could have just broken down and not go at all). # ''__la KEnydis.''__ # ''__ninmu''__ or ''__go'i''__ (Despite the pen-name, George Eliot was a woman) # Not much we can say with the vocabulary we have at the moment other than ''__prenu''__ (maybe emphasising that Sakyamuni~--~the Buddha~--~was a person, not a God or somesuch). Other possible answers would be ''__xindo''__~--~Indian, or ''__pavbudjo''__~--~first Buddhist. # Anything Shakespeare wrote, e.g. ''__la xamlyt.''__, ''__la .otelos.''__ ... # ''__cukta''__ (it's a novel by Stephen King) # ''__fengu''__ or ''__go'i''__~--~we're talking about Laurel and Hardy here.