Lesson 4: Identity Without Crisis

Lo Mipli Steti

1. Hue la Djan: Hoi Megn! I loi! I ie ta?

Says the-one-called John: O/Hey Megan! And hello! What-is-another-name-for that-one?
John: Hey, Megan! Hi!  And who's that?
(The two exclamations and the question constitute one "utterance" by John (one paragraph in text) because they are connected by I.)

2. Hue la Megn: Loi! I ti bi la Palys. I la Palys, detra mi.

Says Megan: Hi! And this is-also-known-as Paula. [And] Paula is-a-daughter of-me.
Megan: Hi! This is Paula. Paula is my daughter.

3. Hue Dai: Ui! I tu he speni, Palys?

Says D: [pleasure] You how? are-experiencing, Palys?
John: My pleasure! How's it going, Paula?

4. Hue Pai: Mi...
...Ue!
...Hoi Matma, La Ditca!

Says P: I...
[surprise]
O Mother! [I observe] The-one-called Teacher!
Paula: I...
Oh!
Hey Mother! It's teacher!
(These are three separate utterances, though all by a single speaker: an incomplete one to John, one to herself, one to her mother.)

5. Hue Dai: Ie?

Says D: Which [teacher]?
Who?

6. Hue Mai: Le la Palys, ditca. I dei bie la Famji Kerll.

Says M: The the-one-called Paula teacher. And [the teacher] is-also-known-as-one-of the-one-of-the-set-called Family Carroll.
Megan: Paula's teacher. She's one of the Carrolls.

7. Hue Dai: Ua, le ditca pe la Palys. I...

Says D: Oh, the teacher of Paula. And...
(Paula starts to leave and Megan interrupts John.)

8. Hue Mai: Palys!
...Loa, hoi Djan! I oa mi kingoi lemi detra!

Says M: Paula!
Bye, John! And it-is-necessary-that I go with my daughter!
Paula!
Bye, John! I must go with my daughter.
(Megan's final speech consists of two utterances, one addressed to Paula, one to John.)

Lona Cninu Purda

Predicates

Little Words

Usages

Lopo Lengu Klimao

• Pronouns, or variables, which point to something present either physically (mi, tu) or in context (as when bei refers back to le bukcu or le brudi).
• Descriptions, which tell what something appears to be or what it may be thought of as being. Le is a descriptor, because it creates descriptions. There are several of these descriptors in Loglan, and we'll look at all of them eventually.
• Names, which are what something or somebody is called. Names may be taken from a description (Hoi Ditca! 'O Teacher'), but they may also be nothing but arbitrary labels. ( Ekska'lybr! 'Excalibur!').

Now the obvious question is, "Which thing do you mean?" People can usually figure out which thing you're talking about if you pick reasonably "clear" descriptions, and don't call a book-like thing "le tcaro", say. But before you or your audience can tell whether a claim is true or false, the identities of the arguments must be settled. So if I remark that the book is heavier than Paul (Le bukcu ga tidjo la Pal), you need to know which book and which Paul I'm talking about.

There are two ways to find out who's who and what's what. You can ask for a claim about the thing (Le bukcu he or La Pal, he) or you can ask for another name (Ie le bukcu or Ie la Pal). In the first case I might claim that the book-like thing I'm talking about is red (Le bukcu ga redro) and that the Paul I'm talking about is a learner (La Pal, cirna). In the second case I might say that Paul is also known as Paul Jones (La Pal, bi la Pal Djonz) or that he is the student we'd been talking about (La Pal, bi le cirna). Then you could figure out whether Le redro bukcu ga tidjo la Pal Djonz is true or false.

When we give another name for something -- actually another argument for it -- we use bi. Note that bi is a special sort of predicate: though you can put ga and le in front of any real predicate, *ga bi and *le bi are meaningless. Also, utterances containing bi are not claims. They just link a pair of arguments, so that both are taken to refer to the same thing. Thus, La Pal, bi le cirna means that whenever I say la Pal, you could replace it with le cirna, and vice versa. The problem with all this is that in English, claims (with predicates) and identity sentences (with 'is') usually look the same. To tell the difference, you can ask whether the sentence is actually about a person or thing (a claim) or just about names (an identification).

A quick-and-dirty way to solve the problem is to look at what comes after the verb `is': `is a' usually marks a claim, while `is the' usually marks an identification:

• La Selis, matma. Sally is a mother.
• La Selis, bi le matma. Sally is the mother in question.

Notes:

1. La means `the one I'm thinking of who is called ...: ` Thus La Palys, means `the one I'm thinking of who is called Paula'. La is also used (like le) to make arguments (in this case, names) out of predicates: la Matma `the one I'm thinking of who is called Mother [of ... with father ...]'. (Like le, la turns off the predicate's blanks.)

When you use a term generally (usually with `the'), use le; when you use it as someone's name (or as part of it), use la. Ex. le ditca = `the teacher'; la Ditca [Smit] = `Teacher [Smith]'. As in English, titles precede personal names; in the same way the Carrolls [family] becomes la Famji Kerll.

2. Whenever you call anyone/-thing by name, replace la with hoi: Hoi Matma `Mother! ` Hoi Ditca (Djonz) `Teacher (Jones)!' Hoi Tun `Hey, you! ` (An -n has been added to tu to make it a name. This is how little words are turned into names.) As a rule of thumb, when you call someone's attention, you are using a name. You may translate Hoi into English by using either 'O' or 'Hey' or leave it untranslated..

3. Ie followed by an argument asks for the argument's identity (a name or designation): "Which one do you mean?" There are two ways to answer this question: first, with an identifying argument (Le la Palys, ditca), and second, with a sentence using bi (I ti bi la Palys).

4. Utterances with bi claim that two names or designations refer to the same person or thing: Mi bi la Palys = `I am also known as Paula i.e. You may replace the word "I" (when I use it) with the name "Paula".' You can also use ei to check an identification: Ei tu bi la Palys? `Are you the one called Paula?' This is short for constructions such as Ei li tu bi la Palys, lu tradu steti tu? `Is "You are Paula" a true sentence about you?' .

5. If a Loglan operator doesn't need to appear explicitly in a certain context -- if its meaning can be clearly inferred from that context -- it may be omitted. Thus you can say,

• Palys! Paula!
• Godzi, Pal! Go, Paul!

• Hoi, Palys! Hey, Paula!
• Godzi, hoi Pal! Go, O Paul!

• Hoi Ditca! Hey, Teacher!
• Godzi, hoi Ditca! Go, O Teacher!
• Godzi la Meris, hoi Djein! Go to Mary, O Jane!

• Ditca! Teach!/Be a teacher!
• Godzi ditca! Be a going teacher!
• Godzi la Meris Djein! Go to Mary Jane!

7. Le la Palys, ditca is just a longer version of LePai ditca. Both are extensions of the lemi construction. Remember, le + an argument is possessive, and and variables, names, and descriptions are all arguments. Thus le le detra, ditca also works as a possessive but requires a comma after the description...for reasons we will study in the next lesson.

8. Bie means `is also known as one of the set...', and shares the grammar of bi; it is used to identify someone or something as a member of some set or group. Thus, the teacher is one of the Carrolls, a family John presumably knows.

9. Possessive constructions with full names or descriptions are often awkward, so the little word pe (`of') allows you to expand a description of, say, Monticello, from le la Tamys Dje'frsyn, hasfa to le hasfa pe la Tamys Dje'frsyn.

Lopo Purmao

-pli [PLIzo] use (a tool):

logpli [LOGla PLIzo = Loglan-use] ... uses Loglan in situation ...

-dru DiRlU lose (a quality):

kladydru [KLADa (Y) DiRlU = cloud-lose] (area) ... clears up, becomes uncloudy

-flo FO/Lma full of, having a lot of:

kladyflo [KLADa (Y) FO/Lma = cloud-full] (area) ... is cloudy

Lo Nurvia Logla

Va le ckela

(Le grupa ga nengoi le ckela. I, fa ta, gei zvokaa)

Hue Pai: Ui le skati na kladydru! Ifeu, no ba klada vi. I sei pa mutce kladyflo, e sei na kladycle.
Hue Dai: Ua ui!
-------La Karl! Isii le tcaro na nu nakso.

Lo Kenti

1. Ie la Kicmu?
2. Hu fatru la Denys?
3. Ei ba klada vi le ckela?
4. Ibuo le skati pa he?

Lo dupma kenti ('Trick question'):

Ei la Ine's, kicmu?

Lo Cninu Purda

Predicates

Little Words

Usage

Names

Summary: Lesson 4

2. The two identity-linking words are bi and bie: asi bi bei simply means that in what is being said or written at the moment, a and b refer to the same person or thing -- they may be used interchangeably. Bie identifies something as a member of a group or set: American authors, British books, planets in the solar system, etc.

3. Ta bi hu asks for an identification of ta. The answer may be a complete sentence with bi or bie, or just the alternative designation: La Selis, bi hu 'Sally is who?' may be answered with either La Selis, bi le ditca 'Sally is the teacher' or just le ditca.

4. La signals a name, that is, `the one I mean called .... `. La may precede either a regular name (all of which end in consonants. as Djan (`John') and Selis (`Sally')do, or a predicate (la Ditca `Teacher').

5. Hoi is generally followed by a name: Hoi Ditca `Hey/O Teacher! ` Use hoi when you're calling someone by name; exclamations (La Ditca `[It's] Teacher!' Le ditca `It's the teacher!') use regular arguments. Hoi may usually be omitted before regular names (those that end in a consonant), but not before predicates used as names.

6. There are two ways to show possession (or just general relationship): le [argument] [predicate], where [argument] is related to le [predicate]: lePai ditca `P's teacher'; le la Palys, ditca `Paula's teacher'; and [argument1] pe [argument2], where pe works like English of: le ditca pe Pai/la Palys `the teacher of P/Paula'

Lopo Notlensea Cirduo

Lo Retpi