5.9. Other kinds of simple selbri

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

go'i	GOhA	repeats the previous bridi
du	GOhA	equality
nu'a	NUhA	math operator to selbri
moi	MOI	changes number to ordinal selbri
mei	MOI	changes number to cardinal selbri
nu	NU	event abstraction
kei	KEI	terminator for NU

So far we have only discussed brivla and tanru built up from brivla as possible selbri. In fact, there are a few other constructions in Lojban which are grammatically equivalent to brivla: they can be used either directly as selbri, or as components in tanru. Some of these types of simple selbri are discussed at length in Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 18; but for completeness these types are mentioned here with a brief explanation and an example of their use in selbri.

The cmavo of selma'o GOhA (with one exception) serve as pro-bridi, providing a reference to the content of other bridi; none of them has a fixed meaning. The most commonly used member of GOhA is probably go'i, which amounts to a repetition of the previous bridi, or part of it. If I say:

Example 5.89.

la	.djan.	klama	le	zarci
That-named	John	goes-to	the	market.

you may retort:

Example 5.90.

la	.djan.	go'i	troci
That-named	John	[repeat-last]	are-a-trier.

John tries to.

Example 5.90 is short for:

Example 5.91.

la	.djan.	klama	be	le	zarci	be'o		troci
That-named	John	is-a-goer	(	to-the	market	)	type-of	trier.

because the whole bridi of Example 5.89 has been packaged up into the single word go'i and inserted into Example 5.90.

The exceptional member of GOhA is du, which represents the relation of identity. Its place structure is:

x₁ is identical with x₂, x₃, ...

for as many places as are given. More information on selma'o GOhA is available in Chapter 7.

Lojban mathematical expressions (mekso) can be incorporated into selbri in two different ways. Mathematical operators such as su'i, meaning “plus”, can be transformed into selbri by prefixing them with nu'a (of selma'o NUhA). The resulting place structure is:

x₁ is the result of applying (the operator) to arguments x₂, x₃, etc.

for as many arguments as are required. (The result goes in the x₁ place because the number of following places may be indefinite.) For example:

Example 5.92.

li	vo	nu'a su'i	li	re	li	re
The-number	4	is-the-sum-of	the-number	2	and-the-number	2.

A possible tanru example might be:

Example 5.93.

mi	jimpe	tu'a	loi	nu'a su'i	nabmi
I	understand	something-about	the-mass-of	is-the-sum-of	problems.

I understand addition problems.

More usefully, it is possible to combine a mathematical expression with a cmavo of selma'o MOI to create one of various numerical selbri. Details are available in Section 18.11. Here are a few tanru:

Example 5.94.

la	.prim.	.palvr.	pamoi	cusku
That-named	Preem	Palver	is-the-1-th	speaker.

Preem Palver is the first speaker.

Example 5.95.

la	.an,iis.	joi	la	.asun.
That-named	Anyi	massed-with	that-named	Asun

bruna	remei
are-a-brother	type-of-twosome.

Anyi and Asun are two brothers.

Finally, an important type of simple selbri which is not a brivla is the abstraction. Grammatically, abstractions are simple: a cmavo of selma'o NU, followed by a bridi, followed by the elidable terminator kei of selma'o KEI. Semantically, abstractions are an extremely subtle and powerful feature of Lojban whose full ramifications are documented in Chapter 11. A few examples:

Example 5.96.

ti	nu	zdile	kei	kumfa
This	is-an-event-of	amusement		room.

This is an amusement room.

Example 5.96 is quite distinct in meaning from:

Example 5.97.

ti	zdile	kumfa
This	is-an-amuser	room.

which suggests the meaning “a room that amuses someone”.