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”.)

We can also move the property description to the x1 place of Example 11.23, producing:

It would be suitable to use Example 11.23 and Example 11.24 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 11.27 and Example 11.28 are quite different in meaning:

The “X” used in the glosses of Example 11.27 through Example 11.28 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 11.27, with no ellipsis, is:

and of Example 11.28 is:

This convention allows disambiguation of cases like:

into

which is the most natural interpretation of Example 11.31, 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: