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Final edits and posting of Lojban post Getty Ritter 8 years ago
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100100 We can also combine ideas that share \em{variables} in order to
101101 express more complicated concepts: for example, if we know that
102 Garfield is seeinga cat, but we don't have
102 Garfield is seeing a cat, but we don't have
103103 a name for that particular cat, we can express that using
104104 our mathematical notation as well by introducing a dummy
105105 variable:
112112 The Lojban language builds off of predicate logic like this, but provides a
113113 system for speaking these kind of formulae aloud. Instead of
114114 \\(\\textit\{is-a-cat\}(\\textit\{that-thing\})\\), we use
115 the word \em{ta} to stand in for \\(\\textit\{that-thing\}\\),
115 the word\ref{words}
116 \sidenote
117 {
118 The words that appear in \wd{this color|that is, #993366} here will have tooltips, so
119 you can easily recall the meaning of each word.
120 }
121 \em{\wd{ta|that}} to stand in for \\(\\textit\{that-thing\}\\),
116122 and we express the predicate \\(\\textit\{is-a-cat\}\\) by
117 the word \em{mlatu}. So, we can express our sentence:
123 the word \em{\wd{mlatu|is-a-cat}}.
124 So, we can express our sentence:
125
118126
119127 \blockquote{\em{\wd{ta|that} \wd{mlatu.|is-a-cat}}\br{}"That is a cat."}
120128
121129 We can also use proper nouns like "Garfield" or "Jon",
122130 but Lojban insists that, for clarity, we explicitly indicate
123131 which words are proper nouns: they must be preceeded
124 by the word \em{la}, must be spelled using Lojban's phonetic
132 by the word \em{\wd{la|the-one-named}}, must be spelled using Lojban's phonetic
125133 conventions, and must end in a consonant. This ensures that
126134 proper nouns are easily distinguishable from other classes of
127135 words.\ref{who}
138146 The arguments given to predicates are ordered, so for a
139147 predicate of more than one argument, we can list the
140148 arguments in the correct order. Using the Lojban predicate
141 \em{viska}, which is analogous to our
149 \em{\wd{viska|sees}}, which is analogous to our
142150 predicate \\(\\textit\{sees\}(x, y)\\):
143151
144152 \blockquote{\em{\wd{la|the-one-named}
162170 But even though it's logically similar to what we want to
163171 express, it's awkward linguistically. To that end, Lojban
164172 lets us turn a predicate into a "thing" using the article
165 \em{lo}, which means something like,
173 \em{\wd{lo|that-which}}, which means something like,
166174 "The thing such that [a predicate] is true." Therefore,
167 the phrase \em{lo mlatu} means, "the thing such that it is
175 the phrase \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{mlatu|is-a-cat}} means, "the thing such that it is
168176 a cat," or more idiomatically, "the cat."
169177
170178 \blockquote{\em{\wd{la|the-one-named}
173181 \wd{lo|the-one-which}
174182 \wd{mlatu.|is-a-cat}}\br{}"Garfield sees the cat."}
175183
176 If we don't really care to specify some argument to some
177 predicate, we can supply it with the word \em{zo'e}, which
178 stands in for anything unspecified. Thus, we can translate
184 If we don't need or want to specify an argument to some
185 predicate, we can supply it with the word \em{\wd{zo'e|[unspecified]}}, which
186 stands in for something that's not relevant to the
187 current discourse. Thus, we can translate
179188 the more vague statement, "Garfield sees something," as
180189
181190 \blockquote{\em{\wd{la|the-one-named}
183192 \wd{viska|sees}
184193 \wd{zo'e.|something unspecified}}\br{} "Garfield sees something unspecified."}
185194
186 If the word \em{zo'e} comes at the end of a sentence, we
195 If the word \em{\wd{zo'e|[unspecified]}} comes at the end of a sentence, we
187196 can safely omit it; otherwise, predicates with a large number of
188 arguments would always end in a tedious string of \em{zo'e zo'e zo'e}.
197 arguments would always end in a tedious string of
198 \em{\wd{zo'e|[unspecified]} \wd{zo'e|[unspecified again]} \wd{zo'e|[this one is unspecified too]}}.
189199 In fact, I've already been doing this without mentioning it:
190 the predicate \em{mlatu} takes not one but two arguments—\em{x mlatu y}
200 the predicate \em{\wd{mlatu|is-a-cat}} takes not one but two
201 arguments—\em{x \wd{mlatu|x\sub{1} is a cat of species x\sub{2}} y}
191202 means that \em{x} is a cat of species \em{y}—and
192 \em{viska} takes three arguments—\em{x viska y z} means
203 \em{\wd{viska|sees}} takes three
204 arguments—\em{x \wd{viska|x\sub{1} sees x\sub{2} under x\sub{3}} y z} means
193205 that \em{x} sees \em{y} in the condition \em{z}. Some
194206 predicates take as many as \em{five} arguments:
195 for example, \em{klama}, according to the standard Lojban
196 predicate reference, means:
207 for example, \em{\wd{klama|comes/goes}}, according to the standard Lojban
208 reference documents, means:
197209
198210 \blockquote
199211 {
200 \em{x1} comes or goes to destination \em{x2}
201 from origin \em{x3} via route \em{x4} using means or vehicle \em{x5}
212 \em{x\sub{1}} comes or goes to destination \em{x\sub{2}}
213 from origin \em{x\sub{3}} via route \em{x\sub{4}} using means or vehicle \em{x\sub{5}}
202214 }
203215
204216 That means we can express the sentence, "Jon is coming," as:
218230 \wd{klama|comes}.}}
219231
220232 We can also rearrange the order of arguments to a predicate:
221 the word \em{se} is used to swap the first two arguments to
233 the word \em{\wd{se|[swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{2}]}} is used to swap the first two arguments to
222234 a predicate, so that
223235
224236 \blockquote{\em{\wd{la|the-one-named}
235247 \wd{la|the-one-named}
236248 \wd{garfild|Garfield}.}}
237249
238 We can use those argument-swapping words with \em{lo}, as well:
239 \em{lo viska} means "the one seeing", while \em{lo se viska} means
250 We can use those argument-swapping words with \em{\wd{lo|that-which}}, as well:
251 \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{viska|sees}} means "the one seeing" or "the see-er",
252 while \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{se|[swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{2}]} \wd{viska|sees}} means
240253 "the one being seen." This is a convenient way of building up
241254 a very large amount of vocabulary: from the five argument positions
242 of the word \em{klama}, we can derive five "nouns": \em{lo klama}
243 "the go-er", \em{lo se klama} "the destination", \em{lo te klama}
244 "the origin", \em{lo ve klama} "the route", and \em{lo xe klama}
245 "the means of transportation".
255 of the word \em{\wd{klama|comes/goes}}, we can derive five "nouns":
256 \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{klama|goes}} "the go-er",
257 \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{se|swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{2}} \wd{klama|goes}} "the destination",
258 \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{te|swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{3}} \wd{klama|goes}} "the origin",
259 \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{ve|swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{4}} \wd{klama|goes}} "the route", and
260 \em{\wd{lo|that-which} \wd{xe|swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{5}} \wd{klama|goes}} "the means of transportation".
246261
247262 Now we have the grammar necessary to tell relatively basic
248263 and banal children's stories:
277292 descriptive way, and several other interesting features.
278293 But I've shown the three major components of the Lojban
279294 language: proper nouns, structure words like
280 \em{lo} and \em{se}, and predicates, which are the principal
295 \em{\wd{lo|that-which}} and \em{\wd{se|[swap x\sub{1} and x\sub{2}]}},
296 and predicates, which are the principal
281297 distinguishing feature of Lojban.
282298
283299 \center{\img{/static/garfield.png}}
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