# Lojban/Pro-sumti

Pro-sumti are words that describe other sumti without specifically mentioning them- kind of like "he" or "this" in English. Unlike English, Lojban has sumti with only one possible interpretation ("he" does not: There are Bill and Charlie. He hit him. (Who hit whom?)').

## Additional Notes and/or Examples

* After any occurrence of a cmavo belonging to selma'o KOhA4 (ko'a, fo'a, etc.) "cu" is not necessary, unless if the utternace is complex.
* The "counting-back rule" used for "ri", "ra", "ru" does not include selma'o KOhA4.
** "la suzyn. goi ko'a zgani lo nanmu .i ko'a se melbi ri" = Susan sees that which is really a man (the man). He (the man/lo nanmu) is beautiful to Susan.
* "ra" can be used in place of "ri" (meaning that they both can refer to the immediately preceding predicate argument), unless if "ri" is already in use for the intended anaphora:
** [lo smuci .i lo forca .i la djen. pu pilno ri .i la rik. pilno ra] = There exist at least of spoon. There exist at least on fork. Jen used (the-immediately-preceding-sumti = a fork). Rick uses (somewhat-distant-sumti = a spoon).
*** If "ri" did not occur, but was replaced by "ra" - [lo smuci .i lo forca .i la djen. pu pilno ra] - "ra" could refer to "a fork".
** This rule also applies to "ra" and "ru", respectively, as well.
* [goi] need not always assign a pro-sumti from the KOhA4 series
** [lo tricu goi .ytoi (cu) melbi mi .i .ytoi banro] = The tree is good-looking to me. The tree is growing.
*** In the immediately previous example, any occurrence of [.ytoi] refers to [lo tricu] specifically, not any [[tricu], nor anything else.
** [ko'e goi la samantas. (ge'u) (cu) melbi] = Party$_2$, henceforth known as "Samantha", is beautiful.
*** The immediately previous utterance is equivalent to [la samantas. goi ko'e (ge'u) (cu) melbi] (which is, in English "Samantha, henceforth known as "Party$_2$ is beautiful"), therefore [goi] is symmetric.
*** This sentence does not imply that the name of [ko'e] is "Samantha", nor is [ko'e] normally called "Samantha". It merely states that "Samantha" is a term, almost chosen at random, that will be used to identify [ko'e] for that writing.
* [ge'u] differs from [da'o]: [ge'u] just terminates the action of assignment; while [da'o] terminates the pro-sumti meaning what it previously meant.
*** [la nevil. goi ko'i ge'u (cu) dunku le du'u rirni jai fenki] = Neville, henceforth known as "[ko'i]", is anguished by the notion of his parent's being crazy
             Not: Neville, henceforth known as "[ko'i (cu) dunku le du'u rirni jai fenki]"
*** [la nevil. da'o cu virnu] = Neville, no longer dubbed "[ko'i]", is brave
* The precise definition of [le go'i], and (by extension) any of its relatives, is "that which is described as doing the previous bridi".
** [le xekri mlatu cu klama le zarci .i le go'i cu cadzu le bisli] = The black cat goes to the store. The cat (that is black and goes to the store) walks on the ice.

### Pro-sumti as Rafsi

* The most prominent way of using pro-sumti as rafsi is to use them is as internal sumti, filling in an appropriate place of the gismu or lujvo to which they are attached
** as such, they usually stand as the first rafsi in their lujvo.
** [donta'a] ([do] = you; [tavla] = talk) = [tavla be do]
*** x1=tavla1 talks to you about subject x2=tavla3 in language x3=tavla4
**** since tavla2 (the addressee) is already known to be [do] (you).
** [donma'o] ([do] = you; [cmavo] = structure word) = [cmavo be zo do]
*** x1=cmavo1 is a second person pronoun in language x2=cmavo4
**** Since both the cmavo2 place (the grammatical class) and the cmavo3 place (the meaning) are obvious from the context [do].
* cmavo of series KOhA4 ([ko'a], [ko'e], [ko'i]...) terjvo (predicate arguments that make up a lujvo) which can't be expressed in a convenient rafsi form, because they are too long to express, or are formally inconvenient (fu'ivla, cmene, and so forth.)
** [fo'a goi le kulnrsu,omi .i lo fo'arselsanga] = x6 stands for Finnish-culture. An x6-song
* Lujvo involving [zi'o] are also possible. In brief, the convention is to use the rafsi for [zi'o] as a prefix immediately followed by the rafsi for the number of the place to be deleted.
** Consider a beverage (something drunk without considering who, if anyone, drinks it) as a [se pinxe be zi'o] the lujvo corresponding to this is [zilrelselpinxe] (deleting the second place of [se pinxe]). Deleting the x1 place in this fashion would move all remaining places up by one.
*** [zilpavypinxe] = [zilrelselpinxe]
*** [lo zilpavypinxe] = [lo zilrelselpinxe] refers to a beverage, and not to a non-existent drinker.
* The pro-bridi [co'e'], [du], and [bu'a] also have rafsi, which can be used just as if they were gismu.
** The resulting lujvo have (except for [du]-based lujvo) highly context-dependent meanings.