John Woldemar Cowan

“ The space of emotions Each of the attitude scales constitutes an axis in a multi-dimensional space. In effect, given our total so far of 39 scales, we have a 39-dimensional space. At any given time, our emotions and attitudes are represented by a point in this 39-dimensional space, with the intensity indicators serving as coordinates along each dimension. A complete attitudinal inventory, should one decide to express it, would consist of reading off each of the scale values for each of the emotions, with the vector sum serving as a distinct single point, which is our attitude. ”

“ Pure emotion indicators Attitudinals make no claim: they are expressions of attitude, not of facts or alleged facts. As a result, attitudinals themselves have no truth value, nor do they directly affect the truth value of a bridi that they modify. However, since emotional attitudes are carried in your mind, they reflect reactions to that version of the world that the mind is thinking about; this is seldom identical with the real world. At times, we are thinking about our idealized version of the real world ”

“ I know who goes to the store. Vocative scales “Vocatives” are words used to address someone directly; they precede and mark a name used in direct address, just as “la” (and the other members of selma'o LA) mark a name used to refer to someone. The vocatives actually are indicators — in fact, discursives — but the need to tie them to names and other descriptions of listeners requires them to be separated from selma'o UI. But like the cmavo of UI, the members of selma'o COI can be “negated” with “nai” to get the opposite part of the scale. ”

“ When communicating across cultural boundaries, where different indicators are often used for the same emotion, accidental offense can be avoided. If we ever ran into an alien race, a culturally neutral language of emotion could be vital. (A classic example, taken from the science fiction of Larry Niven, is to imagine speaking Lojban to the carnivorous warriors called Kzinti, noting that a human smile bares the teeth, and could be seen as an intent to attack.) ”

“ Now no one is going to ever utter a string of 100-odd attitudinals to express their emotions. If asked, we normally do not recognize more than one or two emotions at a time — usually the ones that are strongest or which most recently changed in some significant way. But the scale system provides some useful insights into a possible theory of emotion (which might be testable using Lojban) , and incidentally explains how Lojbanists express compound emotions when they do recognize them. ”

“ Unlike the tanru, though, the emotional expressions are built on some fairly nebulous root emotions — words that cannot be defined with the precision of the gismu. The emotion words of Lojban will very quickly take on a life of their own, and the outline given here will evolve into a true system of emotions.
There are several theories as to the nature of emotion, and they change from year to year as we learn more about ourselves. Whether or not Lojban’s additive/scalar emotional model is an accurate model for human emotions, it does support the linguistic needs for expressing those emotions. ”

“ In addition to the attitudinals, there are other classes of indicators: intensity markers, emotion categories, attitudinal modifiers, observationals, and discursives. All of them are grammatically equivalent, which is why they are treated together in this chapter.
Every indicator behaves in more or less the same way with respect to the grammar of the rest of the language. In general, one or more indicators can be inserted at the beginning of an utterance or after any word. Indicators at the beginning apply to the whole utterance; otherwise, they apply to the word that they follow. ”

“ You put the scale word for a root emotion word before a modifier, since the latter can have its own scale word. This merely maximizes the amount of information expressible. For example, “.oinaicu'i ro'ucai” expresses a feeling midway between pain (“.oi”) and pleasure (“.oinai”) which is intensely sexual (“ro'u”) in nature.
The cmavo “nai” is the most tightly bound modifier in the language: it always negates exactly one word — the preceding one. Of all the words used in indicator constructs, “nai” is the only one with any meaning outside the indicator system. ”

“ Discourse that uses evidentials has therefore a different rhetorical flavor than discourse that does not; arguments tend to become what can be called dialogues or alternating monologues, depending on your prejudices.
Evidentials are most often placed at the beginning of sentences, and are often attached to the “.i” that separates sentences in connected discourse. It is in the nature of an evidential to affect the entire bridi in which it is placed: like the propositional attitude indicators, they strongly affect the claim made by the main bridi. ”

“ Like the attitudinal indicators, the evidentials belong to selma'o UI, and may be treated identically for grammatical purposes. Most of them are not usually considered scalar in nature, but a few have associated scales.
A bridi with an evidential in it becomes “indisputable”, in the sense that the speaker is saying “how it is with him or her”, which is beyond argument. Claims about one’s own mental states may be true or false, but are hardly subject to other people’s examination. If you say that you think, or perceive, or postulate such-and-such a predication, who can contradict you? ”

“ Both “pei” and “dai” represent exceptions to the normal rule that attitudinals reflect the speaker’s attitude.
Finally, we often want to report how our attitudes are changing. If our attitude has not changed, we can just repeat the attitudinal. (Therefore, “.ui .ui .ui” is not the same as “.uicai”, but simply means that we are continuing to be happy.) If we want to report that we are beginning to feel, continuing to feel, or ceasing to feel an emotion, we can use the attitudinal contour cmavo “bu'o”. ”

“ Evidentials are also essential to the constructed language Láadan, designed by the linguist and novelist Suzette Haden Elgin. Láadan’s set of indicators was drawn on extensively in developing the Lojban indicator system.
It is important to realize, however, that evidentials are not some odd system used by some strange people who live at the other end of nowhere: although their English equivalents aren’t single words, English-speakers have vivid notions of what constitutes evidence, and of the different kinds of evidence. ”

“ The most immediate benefit is in learning. You only need to learn a couple of the scale words and a couple of attitude words, and you’re ready to express your emotions Lojbanically. As you learn more, you can express your emotions more thoroughly and more precisely, but even a limited vocabulary offers a broad range of expression.
Emotional categories The Lojban attitudinal system was designed by starting with a long list of English emotion words, far too many to fit into the 39 available VV-form cmavo. ”

“ Because Lojban is unique among languages in having such extensive and expressive indicators, it is likely that a Sapir-Whorf effect will occur and will be recognized.
It is unlikely that we will know the true potential of a system like this one until and unless we have children raised entirely in a multi-cultural Lojban-speaking environment. We learn too many cultural habits in the realm of emotional communication “at our mother’s knee”. Such children will have a Lojban system that has stronger reinforcement than any typical culture system. ”

“ Every possible string of UI cmavo has some meaning.
Within a string of indicators, there will be conventions of interpretation which amount to a kind of second-order grammar. Each of the modifier words is presumed to modify an indicator to the left, if there is one. (There is an “unspecified emotion” word, “ge'e”, reserved to ensure that if you want to express a modifier without a root emotion, it doesn’t attach to and modify a previous but distinct emotional expression.) ”

“ The cmavo “se'i” expresses the difference between selfishness and generosity, for example (in combination with “.au”) :
7.5) .ause'i [desire] [self] I want it! 7.6) .ause'inai [desire] [other] I want you to have it! In both cases, the English “it” is vague, reflecting the absence of a bridi. Example 7.5 and Example 7.6 are pure expressions of attitude. Analogously, “.uuse'i” is self-pity, whereas “.uuse'inai” is pity for someone else.
The modifier “ri'e” indicates emotional release versus emotional control. “I will not let him know how angry I am”, you say to yourself before entering the room. ”

“ It is likely that most combinations will never get used. But if one person uses one of these expressions, another person can understand (as unambiguously as the expresser intends) what emotion is being expressed. Most probably as the system becomes well-known and internalized by Lojban-speakers, particular attitudinal combinations will come to be standard expressions (if not cliches) of emotion.
Compound indicators The grammar of indicators is quite simple; almost all facets are optional. You can combine indicators in any order, and they are still grammatical. ”

“ For circumstances in which even the current indicator set is not enough, it is possible using the cmavo “sei”, explained in Chapter 19, to create metalinguistic comments that act like indicators.
We envision an evolutionary development. At this point, the system is little more than a mental toy. Many of you who read this will try playing around with various combinations of indicators, trying to figure out what emotions they express and when the expressions might be useful. You may even find an expression for which there currently is no good English word and start using it. ”

“ If the word that an indicator (or group) attaches to is itself a cmavo which governs a grammatical structure, then the indicator construct pertains to the referent of the entire structure. There is also a mechanism, discussed in Chapter 19, for explicitly marking the range of words to which an indicator applies.
More details about the uses of indicators, and the way they interact with other specialized cmavo, are given in Chapter 19. It is worth mentioning that real-world interpretation is not necessarily consistent with the formal scope rules. ”

“ People generally express emotions when they feel them, with only a minimum of grammatical constraint on that expression; complexities of emotional expression are seldom logically analyzable. Lojban attempts to provide a systematic reference that could possibly be ingrained to an instinctive level. However, it should always be assumed that the referent of an indicator has some uncertainty.
For example, in cases of multiple indicators expressed together, the combined form has some ambiguity of interpretation. ”

“ For example, “.ieru'e” expresses a weak positive value on the scale of agreement: the speaker agrees (presumably with the listener or with something else just stated) , but with the least possible degree of intensity. But “.ie ge'eru'e” expresses agreement (at an unspecified level) , followed by some other unstated emotion which is felt at a weak level. A rough English equivalent of “.ie ge'eru'e” might be “I agree, but ...” where the “but” is left hanging. (Again, attitudes aren’t always expressed in English by English attitudinals.) ”

“ Therefore, there are two groups of attitudinals in Lojban. The “pure emotion indicators” express the way the speaker is feeling, without direct reference to what else is said. These indicators comprise the attitudinals which begin with “u” or “o” and many of those beginning with “i”.
The cmavo beginning with “u” are simple emotions, which represent the speaker’s reaction to the world as it is, or as it is perceived to be. ”

“ It is well-known that listeners often fail to recognize a humorous statement and take it seriously, or miss an exaggeration, or try to read more into a statement than the speaker intends to put there. ”

“ This form of translation does not mean that Lojban is a language of CB enthusiasts, but rather that in most natural languages these forms are so well handled by the context that only in specific domains (like speaking on the radio) do they need special words. In Lojban, dependence on the context can be dangerous, as speaker and listener may not share the right context, and so the vocatives provide a formal protocol for use when it is appropriate. ”

“ Example 3.16 illustrates the use of a propositional attitude indicator, “i'e”, in both the usual sense (at the beginning of the bridi) and as a pure emotion (attached to “do”) . The event expressed by the main bridi is disapproved of by the speaker, but the referent of the sumti in the x1 place (namely the listener) is approved of. ”

“ A bridi marked by “ka'u” is one held to be true in the speaker’s cultural context, as a matter of myth or custom, for example. Such statements should be agreed on by a community of people — you cannot just make up your own cultural context — although “objectivity” in the sense of actual correspondence with the facts is certainly not required. ”

“ Lying with attitudinals is (normally) as inappropriate to Lojban discourse as any other kind of lying: perhaps worse, because misunderstood emotions can cause even greater problems than misunderstood statements.
The following examples display the effects of “nai” and “cu'i” when suffixed to an attitudinal:
2.7) .ue la djan. klama [Surprise!] John comes. 2.8) .uecu'i la djan. klama [Ho hum.] John comes. 2.9) .uenai la djan. klama [Expected!] John comes. In Example 2.9, John’s coming has been anticipated by the speaker. ”