The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

So far we have seen mekso used as sumti (with li ), as quantifiers (often parenthesized), and in MOI and ME-MOI selbri. There are a few other minor uses of mekso within Lojban.

The cmavo me'o has the same grammatical use as li but slightly different semantics. li means “the number which is the value of the mekso ...” , whereas me'o just means “the mekso ...” So it is true that:

but false that:

since the expressions “2 + 2” and “4” are not the same. The relationship between li and me'o is related to that between la .djan. , the person named John, and zo .djan. , the name “John”

The cmavo nu'a is the inverse of na'u , and allows a mekso operator to be used as a normal selbri, with the place structure:

for as many places as may be required. For example:

uses nu'a to make the operator va'a into a two-place bridi

Used together, nu'a and na'u make it possible to ask questions about mekso operators, even though there is no specific cmavo for an operator question, nor is it grammatical to utter an operator in isolation. Consider Example 18.131 , to which Example 18.132 is one correct answer:

In Example 18.131 , na'u mo is an operator question, because mo is the selbri question cmavo and na'u makes the selbri into an operator. Example 18.132 makes the true answer su'i into a selbri (which is a legal utterance) with the inverse cmavo nu'a . Mechanically speaking, inserting Example 18.132 into Example 18.131 produces:

where the na'u nu'a cancels out, leaving a truthful bridi

Numerical free modifiers, corresponding to English “firstly” , “secondly” , and so on, can be created by suffixing a member of selma'o MAI to a digit string or a lerfu string. (Digit strings are compound cmavo beginning with a cmavo of selma'o PA, and containing only cmavo of PA or BY; lerfu strings begin with a cmavo of selma'o BY, and likewise contain only PA or BY cmavo.) Here are some examples:

The difference between mai and mo'o is that mo'o enumerates larger subdivisions of a text. Each mo'o subdivision can then be divided into pieces and internally numbered with mai . If this chapter were translated into Lojban, each section would be numbered with mo'o . (See Section 19.7 for more on these words.)

A numerical tense can be created by suffixing a digit string with roi . This usage generates tenses corresponding to English “once” , “twice” , and so on. This topic belongs to a detailed discussion of Lojban tenses, and is explained further in Section 10.9 .

Note: the elidable terminator boi is not used between a number and a member of MAI or ROI.