Re: JCB on SVO order

[John Cowan <cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!cowan@UUNET.UU.NET>]

la kolin. fain. cusku di'e

> In short, a VSO version of Lojban could be created by making two changes
> to interpretation, and no changes to syntax, viz:
>
> 1) In a bridi, the first untagged sumti is always the X1, whether it precedes
> or follows the selbri
> 2) In a selbri with linkargs, the first untagged sumti is the X2, and the
>  meaning of the selbri as a tanrypau or selgadrypau is the X1. To specify the
> X1 (meaningless in a selgadri), FA must be used.

Not really enough.  Consider the very common form

        le prenu poi klama le zarci cu blanu
        the man who goes to-the store is-blue

Under a VSO interpretation, "le zarci" would be the x1 place of "klama",
not the x2 place.  BTW, this goes literally into 4th-edition Loglan as:

        le pernu jao godzi le marte ga blanu

and so we see that JCB isn't even consistent: within a relative clause,
omitting x1 has no imperative sense.

> I assume that a bridi which has tagged terms (but not FA) preceding the
 selbri,
> and untagged ones after is still technically an observative, and interpreted
> according to the observative rule:
> ie
>         ne'i le purdi ga'a mi mu'i leza'i birti kei preti ta mi
> means
>         In the garden, watched by me, in order to be certain, (something was)
>         a question about that to me.
> rather than
>         .... that was a question about me.

Correct.

--
John Cowan      cowan@snark.thyrsus.com         ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan
                        e'osai ko sarji la lojban.