Chapter 4. Rearranging & Tagging Places#

Motivation#

In the default Lojban word order, x₁ comes before the selbri and the rest follow in numbered order. This works perfectly for simple sentences. But what if you want to:

• Omit a middle place while filling a later one?
• Put Boston first in the sentence for emphasis?
• Make it crystal clear which slot a long, complex argument fills?

Lojban has two tools for this: FA place tags and SE conversion.

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FA Place Tags#

The five particles fa fe fi fo fu explicitly label which place a following sumti fills.

Place any of these immediately before a sumti to declare its slot, regardless of position in the sentence.

mi cu klama la bastn. la .atlantas. zo'e le karce I go to Boston from Atlanta via (unspecified) by car.

Using FA tags, this can be rewritten with any order:

fu le karce fo zo'e fi la .atlantas. fe la bastn. fa mi klama x₅=the car x₄=unspecified x₃=Atlanta x₂=Boston x₁=I — go

Both sentences mean the same thing.

FA tags shine when you need to skip a middle place without using zo'e:

mi klama la bastn. la .atlantas. zo'e le karce I go to Boston from Atlanta via (?) by car. — zo'e fills x₄

mi klama fe la bastn. fi la .atlantas. fu le karce I go x₂=Boston x₃=Atlanta x₅=car — x₄ (route) is simply absent

klama fi la .atlantas. fe la bastn. A-goer x₃=Atlanta x₂=Boston — x₁ empty (observative style), x₂ and x₃ in reverse order

After a tagged sumti, any subsequent untagged sumti fill the slots that immediately follow the tagged one in numerical order (skipping already-filled slots). So you can tag just one problematic sumti and let the rest flow naturally:

mi klama fi la .atlantas. la bastn. le dargu le karce — fa=mi (x₁, before selbri), fi=la .atlantas. (x₃), then la bastn. fills x₂? No —

Actually: after the fi tag, untagged sumti fill x₄, x₅ in order (skipping x₂ and x₃ already handled). So:

mi klama la bastn. fi la .atlantas. I go to-Boston x₃=from-Atlanta

Here x₁=mi, x₂=la bastn. (naturally second after selbri), x₃=la .atlantas. (tagged), x₄ and x₅ empty.

fi'a: The Place-Structure Question#

fi'a is a special FA particle that asks which place a sumti occupies:

fi'a do dunda le vi rozgu In what role are you involved in the giving of this rose?

The listener can reply with a bare FA particle: fa (you are the giver) or fi (you are the recipient).

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SE Conversion#

FA tags move arguments around. SE conversion goes deeper: it actually restructures the selbri itself, swapping x₁ with another place to produce a new relation word with a new place structure.

The result is a new selbri that is placed before the original verb. The new x₁ is whatever was x₂ (or x₃, etc.) of the original.

klama place structure: x₁ goes to x₂ from x₃ via x₄ by x₅

se klama place structure (x₁ ↔ x₂): x₁ is the destination; x₂ is the traveler; x₃=origin, x₄=route, x₅=means

la bastn. cu se klama mi Boston is gone-to by me. (Boston is the destination of my going)

This is the Lojban equivalent of the passive voice. It says the same underlying fact as mi klama la bastn. but promotes Boston to x₁.

te klama (x₁ ↔ x₃): x₁ is the origin; x₂ is the destination; x₃ is the traveler

la .atlantas. cu te klama mi la bastn. Atlanta is the origin of my going to Boston.

ve klama (x₁ ↔ x₄): x₁ is the route; x₂=destination, x₃=origin, x₄=traveler

le dargu cu ve klama mi la bastn. The road is the route of my going to Boston.

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SE in Descriptions#

SE conversion becomes especially useful when building descriptions with le. Recall that le selbri takes the x₁ of the selbri as the thing described:

le klama — the goer (x₁ of klama = the traveler)

le se klama — the destination (x₁ of se klama = the place gone to)

le te klama — the origin (x₁ of te klama = the place gone from)

le ve klama — the route (x₁ of ve klama = the path taken)

le xe klama — the means (x₁ of xe klama = the vehicle/method)

This is powerful: from a single five-place relation, you get five description types — traveler, destination, origin, route, means — by just prefixing the right SE.

More examples with dunda (x₁ gives x₂ to x₃):

le dunda — the giver

le se dunda — the gift (x₂ of dunda)

le te dunda — the recipient (x₃ of dunda)

And with tavla (x₁ talks to x₂ about x₃ in language x₄):

le se tavla — the listener / audience

le te tavla — the topic of discussion

le ve tavla — the language used

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Multiple SE#

You can stack two SE particles, but they are evaluated left to right:

se te klama

First apply se (swap x₁↔x₂): x₁=destination, x₂=traveler, x₃=origin Then apply te (swap x₁↔x₃ of the already-converted result): x₁=origin, x₃=destination

In practice, stacked SE is rarely used because FA tags or a single well-chosen SE usually suffice.

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jai: Converting a Modal Tag into x₁#

jai followed by a modal tag (BAI or fi'o phrase) converts the selbri so that the modal argument becomes x₁ of the new selbri. The original x₁ is demoted to the special place fai:

le vorme jai co'a kalri The door [x₁ = door] begins-to-open. (intransitive; door is the mover)

mi jai gau klama I am the agent of going. (= I cause going to happen; gau fills x₁ with the agent)

The structure: jai gau klama means "is an agent of going" — x₁ of the converted selbri is the agent (gau = gasnu = agent). The original x₁ of klama (the goer) moves to fai if needed:

mi jai gau klama fai le bende I cause the team to go. (mi = agent in x₁; le bende = original x₁ of klama, now in fai)

jai with any modal tag:

SE conversion of jai-selbri is also valid:

le bende cu se jai gau klama mi The team is caused-to-go by me. (se moves the fai argument back to x₁)

This is how Lojban handles causative alternations cleanly without changing the base selbri.

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Word Order and Emphasis#

Both FA tags and SE conversion change which argument is in the x₁ slot — the grammatical "topic" position. In Lojban, information moved out of its default position carries extra emphasis.

Standard order (neutral):

mi tavla do I talk to you.

Emphasizing the listener (fe brings x₂ forward, or se promotes it):

do cu se tavla mi You are talked-to by me. (emphasis: you are the one being talked to)

Emphasizing the selbri (observative, no x₁):

tavla mi do There's talking going on — I'm talking to you!

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zo'e: The Explicit Placeholder#

When you need to skip a middle place without tagging, use zo'e ("the unspecified/obvious thing"):

mi klama la bastn. la .atlantas. zo'e le karce I go to Boston from Atlanta via (unspecified route) by car.

zo'e doesn't claim there is no value — it says the value is real but either obvious from context or not relevant to state. You can use zo'e in any place, in any position.

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Summary#

• fa fe fi fo fu tag sumti to specific places x₁–x₅, freeing word order
• After a tagged sumti, untagged sumti fill the next numerically available places
• fi'a asks "which place?"; answered with a bare FA particle
• se te ve xe convert the selbri by swapping x₁ with x₂/x₃/x₄/x₅
• SE gives new selbri: le se klama = the destination, le te klama = the origin, etc.
• zo'e explicitly fills a place with an unspecified value
• Moving arguments out of default position adds emphasis