The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

The things described by le nu descriptions (or, to put it another way, the things of which nu selbri may correctly be predicated) are only moderately “abstract” . They are still closely tied to happenings in space and time. Properties, however, are much more ethereal. What is “the property of being blue” , or “the property of being a go-er” ? They are what logicians call “intensions” . If John has a heart, then “the property of having a heart” is an abstract object which, when applied to John, is true. In fact,

has the same truth conditions as

(The English word “have” frequently appears in any discussion of Lojban properties: things are said to “have” properties, but this is not the same sense of “have” as in “I have money” , which is possession.)

Property descriptions, like event descriptions, are often wanted to fill places in brivla place structures:

(The English suffix “-ness” often signals a property abstraction, as does the suffix “-ity” .)

It would be suitable to use Example 11.23 to someone who has returned from the beach with a sunburn.

There are several different properties that can be extracted from a bridi, depending on which place of the bridi is “understood” as being specified externally. Thus:

is quite different from

In particular, sentences like Example 11.26 and Example 11.27 are quite different in meaning:

The “X” used in the glosses of Example 11.26 through Example 11.27 as a place-holder cannot be represented only by ellipsis in Lojban, because ellipsis means that there must be a specific value that can fill the ellipsis, as mentioned in Section 11.2 . Instead, the cmavo ce'u of selma'o KOhA is employed when an explicit sumti is wanted. (The form “X” will be used in literal translations.)

Therefore, an explicit equivalent of Example 11.26 , with no ellipsis, is:

and of Example 11.27 is:

This convention allows disambiguation of cases like:

into

which is the most natural interpretation of Example 11.30 , versus

which is also a possible interpretation.

It is also possible to have more than one ce'u in a ka abstraction, which transforms it from a property abstraction into a relationship abstraction. Relationship abstractions “package up” a complex relationship for future use; such an abstraction can be translated back into a selbri by placing it in the x2 place of the selbri bridi , whose place structure is:

The place structure of ka abstraction selbri is simply: