Some thoughts on Lojban gadri

[Jorge Llambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>]

This is my current understanding of how the Lojban gadri of selmaho
LE work. Probably it is different from the official position so, like
all I say, to be taken with lots of salt.

lo broda        At least one of all things that broda.
                It doesn't say which one(s), but the question
                is pertinent and has an answer in principle
                (which doesn't mean that the speaker has to know it).

le broda        Each of the thing(s) that the speaker has in mind
                that broda. It does say which one(s), even if the
                listener can't tell (in which case, the comunication
                hasn't been all that effective).

lo'e broda      It doesn't say which one(s), and the question
                is not pertinent. (The answer would be "anyone",
                but since "any" is such a nasty word, let's just
                say that "which one?" can't even in principle
                be answered with "that one".)

le'e broda      Like {lo'e broda}, but restricted to the
                kind of broda the speaker has in mind (which
                may include not-really broda as well).

loi broda       Like {lo broda}, but instead of taken idividually
                a group of broda is taken as a single entity.

lei broda       Like {le broda}, but instead of each separately,
                all of them as a single entity.


{lo'e broda} and {le'e broda} would correspond to {xe'e lo broda}
and {xe'e le broda} if {xe'e} was adopted. Currently there are no
direct equivalents to what would be {xe'e loi broda} and {xe'e lei
broda}.


lo'i broda      Same as {lu'i ro lo broda}.

le'i broda      Same as {lu'i ro le broda}.

I think these are not really necessary, since they are only useful in
very restricted mathematical contexts, and the long form is much more
explicit. One of these days I'll publish my cmavo blacklist, with all
the cmavo that I think are unnecessarily cluttering up cmavo space
(quite a number of them) :)

Jorge