Lojban For Beginners — velcli befi la lojban. bei loi co'a cilre
PrevChapter 10. Cause and EffectNext

Answers to Exercises

Exercise 1

  1. ri'a, obviously.

  2. mu'i. Even if it is a classic 'startle response', my fear is not a direct result of the noise, but the result of some kind of cognitive interpretation, however low-level.

  3. Even the most dogmatic dialectical materialist would probably give mu'i here.

  4. ri'a, since the mold cannot really be said to be motivated by the plastic wrapper, or indeed by anything.

  5. I would say mu'i, since economics is determined by human motives, not physical laws. Note that here the x3 of mukti is not 'prices' (jdima) but those who increase the prices: manufacturers, retailers or the government.

    Note: This is actually a classic example of the 'invisible hand' phenomena so beloved of economists: the result is not an intended result of human activities, but comes about as a side-effect of them. The best sumti tcita for this is actually one we happen not to have covered here: seja'e 'as a result of' (from jalge 'result'.)

Exercise 2

  1. ki'u, because at least somebody thought that it deserved an Oscar.

  2. mu'i: the exciting story motivated me to like the book.

  3. semu'i (an obscure example of British pub culture).

  4. ri'a: the artificial leg physically causes him to walk in a particular way.

  5. seni'i, even though it's a logical fallacy — just because a lot of Australians like Vegemite doesn't mean that she has to.

    Cultural note: Vegemite is the Australian equivalent of the British Marmite; both are a salty paste that you spread on bread. Outside these two countries, nobody seems to like the stuff. Your Australian co-author did not spend his formative years in 'God's Own Country', so he never really did get a taste for it.)

  6. A tricky one. You could say ri'a, meaning that the fact that the computer is running Linux physically prevents it from getting a virus, or you could possibly say ni'i, implying that it is an essential feature of Linux computers that they are immune to viruses.

    Computer flamebait: One can argue that Macintoshes are immune to viruses only ki'u their being Macs, and not ni'i: they aren't inherently more secure than PCs, they just haven't been paid as much attention by crackers. This would of course be getting into geek wars; but we have a sneaking suspicion many of you will indeed be geeks...

  7. seki'u, whether or not you actually believe in Hell or the criteria for entering it. Note also that in English and sometimes has the sense of so, which is not the case in Lojban:

    do pu zergle .ije vi le daptutra do ba jelca
    It is true that you committed adultery and it is also true that you will burn in Hell
    (literally: you past crime-copulate AND at-this-place the hell you future burn)

    More about the logical (and non-logical) connectives follows in the next lesson.

Exercise 3

  1. seri'abo: The door is not only logically preventing you from going inside; it is physically preventing you.

  2. seni'ibo: It logically follows from the definition of 'lock' that, if you lock a door, the door is then closed.

  3. babo: there is no real causal connection between closing a door and leaving. You may be closing the door because you've finished your business there; but who's to say why you closed it, after all...

  4. Either je; babo, or babo; babo. The actions don't follow from each other logically or physically. (If they follow at all, they follow by social convention; so you might have used seki'ubo.) With the first pair, you're at least allowing that you saw me at the same time I saw you. With the second pair, you definitely saw me only after I saw you.

  5. je; nothing. This is a syllogism like the Fluffy syllogism above; it follows from the two facts — you greeting me and you being in front of me — that you have seen me. (Well, it doesn't really follow, but this is a lesson on Lojban, not logic.) So you need to join the two facts together with AND.

    On the other hand, the 'therefore' is already there, as the 'adverbial' seni'i; so you don't need to insert it again for the third sentence. In fact, as we discussed later on, it would join the wrong sentences together anyway...

  6. seri'abo; seni'ibo. People fall as a physical result of being pushed. The definition of 'fall' logically requires that someone who has fallen is lower down than someone who hasn't fallen. (You don't fall upwards. Zero-gravity counterexamples — and you'll make a good Lojbanist if you came up with one — are already anticipated in the x4 place of farlu!)

Exercise 4

  1. la djim. spebi'o la samantas. mu'i ma

  2. le gerku ca cmoni mu'i ma (mu'i seems the best choice, since we can assume that dogs bark as a response to something, and are thus motivated rather than physically caused to bark. Note that cu is possible here instead of ca; I have used ca since it seems important that the dog is barking now.)

  3. vi manku ri'a ma (It isn't really necessary to translate the in, since the speaker is probably inside anyway.)

  4. li vopixa cu danfu ni'i ma (Give yourself a pat on the back if you got that one right! Numbers and mathematical problems belong to the realm of logic, not the physical world.)

  5. le cevni cu curmi lenu palci kei ki'u ma (ki'u is best here, since a religious believer would probably look for some justification for the existence of evil, rather than a physical cause or personal motivation. Some theologians might prefer ni'i, I suppose! The kei is necessary because you're asking a question about the allowing, not about the evil itself.)

Exercise 5

  1. Ranjeet is silent while Susan requests a meal from the carrier (= waiter), because (justification) he is polite and because he likes Susan's voice. (Note the kei: only the first kei is absolutely necessary, and by now you should be able to work out why.)

  2. As a (physical) result, Jyoti can hear the ones sitting at the table to the right talking to each other. (simxu takes a set as its x1; more on this in Lesson 14. le ri'u jubme means 'the table to the right': selbri can take sumti tcita and locations as 'tenses', just like they do time tenses.)

  3. Jyoti, because (motivation) of this, turns towards the table to the right.

  4. Necessarily (= with something logically causing this), Jyoti does not observe that Ranjeet behaves as resembling her in order to mock (i.e. Ranjeet is imitating her) (The logical cause in ni'i ku has been left out, but is presumably the previous sentence. Without the kei, the mocking would be associated with simsa rather than tarti — although there's ultimately isn't that much difference in meaning between the two. Unambiguity doesn't always buy you that much.)

  5. Susan laughs, causing (motivating) Jyoti to turn to her.

  6. (She) says "What?"

  7. Susan says "Ranjeet said something funny to do with Sch�nberg and Stravinsky."

  8. Jyoti thus (motivation) groans "Chootio!" (Gujarati for 'jerk') (Like any other sumti tcita, mu'i can also be used as a 'tense'.)

Exercise 6

  1. .i ba lenu cpedu le sanmi kei la ranjit. cliva mu'i lenu klama le vi'irku'a kei se ri'a lenu ry. na kakne lenu tirna la djiotis. (or: ra na kakne)

  2. .i la djiotis. tavla semu'i lenu ri simsa la ranjit. le ka pluja

  3. .i dy./le go'i/la djiotis./ra cusku lu .i mi lanli le vozemoi se finti be la'o gy. Jimmy Bob Bach gy. se pi'o le vi minra mu'i lenu mi kakne li'u (or la djimis.bab.bax.. You could say le vozemoi se finti pe fi'e ..., but that would mean exactly the same thing. If the composition rather than the analysis happened with a mirror, you would say le vozemoi se finti be la'o gy. Jimmy Bob Bach gy. be'o ne se pi'o le vi minra.

    You could also say le vozemoi be le'i se finti be ... , in which case you're either brilliant, or you've been reading ahead...)

  4. .i la suzyn. cisma ki'u lenu la djiotis. mintu la ranjit. le ka xajmi

  5. .i la djiotis. cusku lu .i doi suzyn. mu'i ma do tavla la ranjit. [soi vo'a] loi se bebna li'u (loi se bebna, 'the thing one is foolish in', is better here than loi nu bebna or loi ka bebna.)

  6. .i lu .i lenu ry./le se go'i/la ranjit./ra cu se kanla lo ba'e se manci li'u (This is an extra-idiomatic way of saying things; kudos if you got it, don't be too worried if you didn't.)

PrevHomeNext
SummaryUpPutting it together: Lojban connectives