12.12.  Abstract lujvo

The cmavo of NU can participate in the construction of lujvo of a particularly simple and well-patterned kind. Consider that old standard example, klama :

Example 12.56. 

k1 comes/goes to k2 from k3 via route k4 by means k5.


The selbri nu klama [kei] has only one place, the event-of-going, but the full five places exist implicitly between nu and kei , since a full bridi with all sumti may be placed there. In a lujvo, there is no room for such inside places, and consequently the lujvo nunkla ( nun- is the rafsi for nu ), needs to have six places:

Example 12.57. 

nu1 is the event of k1's coming/going to k2 from k3 via route k4 by means k5.


Here the first place of nunklama is the first and only place of nu , and the other five places have been pushed down by one to occupy the second through the sixth places. Full information on nu , as well as the other abstractors mentioned in this section, is given in Chapter 11 .

For those abstractors which have a second place as well, the standard convention is to place this place after, rather than before, the places of the brivla being abstracted. The place structure of nilkla , the lujvo derived from ni klama , is the imposing:

Example 12.58. 

ni1 is the amount of k1's coming/going to k2 from k3 via route k4 by means k5, measured on scale ni2.


It is not uncommon for abstractors to participate in the making of more complex lujvo as well. For example, nunsoidji , from the veljvo

Example 12.59. 

nu sonci kei djica
event-of being-a-soldier   desirer

has the place structure

Example 12.60. 

d1 desires the event of (s1 being a soldier of army s2) for purpose d3


where the d2 place has disappeared altogether, being replaced by the places of the seltau. As shown in Example 12.60 , the ordering follows this idea of replacement: the seltau places are inserted at the point where the omitted abstraction place exists in the tertau.

The lujvo nunsoidji is quite different from the ordinary asymmetric lujvo soidji , a soldier desirer , whose place structure is just

Example 12.61. 

d1 desires (a soldier of army s2) for purpose d3


A nunsoidji might be someone who is about to enlist, whereas a soidji might be a camp-follower.

One use of abstract lujvo is to eliminate the need for explicit kei in tanru: nunkalri gasnu means much the same as nu kalri kei gasnu , but is shorter. In addition, many English words ending in -hood are represented with nun- lujvo, and other words ending in -ness or -dom are often representable with kam- lujvo ( kam- is the rafsi for ka ); kambla is blueness .

Even though the cmavo of NU are long-scope in nature, governing the whole following bridi, the NU rafsi should generally be used as short-scope modifiers, like the SE and NAhE rafsi discussed in Section 12.9 .

There is also a rafsi for the cmavo jai , namely jax , which allows sentences like

Example 12.62. 

mi jai rinka le nu do morsi
I am-associated-with causing the event-of your death.

I cause your death.


explained in Section 11.10 , to be rendered with lujvo:

Example 12.63. 

mi jaxri'a le nu do morsi
I am-part-of-the-cause-of the event-of your dying.

In making a lujvo that contains jax- for a selbri that contains jai , the rule is to leave the fai place as a fai place of the lujvo; it does not participate in the regular lujvo place structure. (The use of fai is explained in Section 9.12 and Section 10.22 .)