Re: le/lo

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>You and your lojban-speaking friend are sitting on a bus when two women
>get on, one with an oversized bright green purse, and one with an
>oversized bright red purse. They're the only other people on the bus, and
>the purses really stand out as absurdities.  You happen to be sitting
>close enough to see that the one with the red purse put a slug in the
>till, and you want to point this out to your friend.
>
>You can't say "lo xunre cu tcica lo brakarce", because 1) it wasn't the
>purse that cheated, and 2) it wasn't the bus so much as the bus company
>that was cheated.  So you have a choice of ...

This is an example of metonymy, like Nick Nicholas often discussed.  We have
two common ways of dealing with metonymy in Lojban: tu'a and la'e/lu'e

In this case I think la'e lo xunre cu tcica  la'e lo brakarce
and it might even be important that you use "lo" rather than "le" especially
for the brakarce, becuase any of several buses could have served as the
"pointer" to the bus company.

lojbab