Attitudinals are markers of attitude or emotion, modifying the word (brivla, cmavo, cmene, sumti, or tanru) directly before it. For example, the simple << mlatu >> for "cat" can become << mlatu .ui >> for "cat (happiness!/:D)". At the beginning of a sentence (after the place of .i) they modify the entire sentence (bridi), and after the attitudinal beginning bracket << fu'e >>, they continue the emotion for all the statement until the closing bracket << fu'o >>.
Attitudinals can also affect vocatives, the same way a change in vocal tone can greatly affect a simple "hello". For example, << coi .ui >> means not a simple "Hello.", but something like "Hello! :D". Combined with the attitudinal question-maker pei, you can easily create more complex << coi .uipei >> may be thought of as "Hello - are you glad to see me?", while << co'o .uipei >> may be viewed as "Good-bye - are you happy that we part?".
Beyond mere emotion, they can mark prepositional ideas such as desire ("I want this to happen"), obligation ("This needs to happen"), and many other complex functions we take for granted - for example, << mi citka >> means "I eat", while << .au mi citka >> means "I want to eat", and << .e'e mi citka >> means "I am able to eat".
Emotional modifiers:
Modifier | Modification |
---|---|
cai | very strong |
sai | strong |
(nothing) | felt |
ru'e | weak |
cu'i | not felt |
nairu'e | weak negative |
nai | negative felt |
naisai | strong negative |
naicai | very strong negative |
Attitudinal indicators and suffixes with examples of modifier use:
Attitudinals
Simple propositional emotions:
Attitudinal | attitude | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
.a'a | attentive | inattentive | avoiding |
.a'e | alertness | exhaustion | |
.ai | intent | indecision | refusal |
.a'i | effort | lack of effort | repose |
.a'o | hope | despair | |
.au | desire | indifference | reluctance |
.a'u | interest | no interest | repulsion |
Complex propositional emotions:
Attitudinal | attitude | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
.e'a | permission | prohibition | |
.e'e | competence | incompetence | |
.ei | obligation | freedom | |
.e'i | constraint | independence | resistance to constraint |
.e'o | request | negative request | |
.e'u | suggestion | no suggestion | warning |
.ia | belief | skepticism | disbelief |
.i'a | acceptance | blame | |
.ie | agreement | neutrality | disagreement |
.i'e | approval | non-approval | disapproval |
Miscellaneous pure emotions:
Attitudinal | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
.ii | fear | nervousness | security |
.i'i | togetherness | privacy | |
.io | respect | lack of respect | disrespect |
.i'o | appreciation | lack of appreciation | envy |
.iu | love | lack of love | hatred/fear |
.i'u | familiarity | mystery |
Complex pure emotions:
Attitudinal | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
.o'a | pride | modesty | shame |
.o'e | closeness | detachment | distance |
.oi | complaint/pain | no complaints | pleasure |
.o'i | caution | boldness | rashness |
.o'o | patience | mere tolerance | anger |
.o'u | relaxation | composure | stress |
Simple pure emotions:
Attitudinal | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
.ua | discovery | confusion | |
.u'a | gain | loss | |
.ue | surprise | no surprise | expectation |
.u'e | wonder | commonplace | |
.ui | happiness | unhappiness | |
.u'i | amusement | weariness | |
.uo | completion | incompleteness | |
.u'o | courage | timidity | cowardice |
.uu | pity | cruelty | |
.u'u | repentance | lack of regret | innocence |
Emotional categories:
Category | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
ro'a | social | asocial | antisocial |
ro'e | mental | absentminded | mindless |
ro'i | emotional | emotionless | denying emotion |
ro'o | physical | intangible | denying physical |
ro'u | sexual | asexual | sexual abstinence |
re'e | spiritual | secular | sacrilegious |
Attitudinal modifiers:
Modifier | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai | [gismu] |
---|---|---|---|---|
ga'i | hauteur/rank | equal rank | meekness/lack of rank | [galtu] |
le'o | aggressive | passive | defensive | |
vu'e | virtue [zabna] | sin [mabla] | [vrude] | |
se'i | self-orientation | other-orientation | [sevzi] | |
ri'e | release | restraint | control | [zifre] |
fu'i | easily/with help | without help | with difficulty/opposition | [frili] |
be'u | lack/need | presence/satisfaction | satiation | |
se'a | self-sufficiency | dependency | [sevzi] |
Special:
cmavo | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai |
---|---|---|---|
pei | attitude question | ||
dai | empathy | ||
bu'o | start emotion | continue emotion | end emotion |
Evidentials:
Evidential | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai | [gismu] |
---|---|---|---|---|
ja'o | I conclude | [jalge] | ||
ca'e | I define | |||
ba'a | I expect / I anticipate | I experience | I remember | [balvi] |
su'a | I generalize | I particularize | [sucta] | |
ti'e | I hear (hearsay) - not necessarily literally "hear" | [tirna] | ||
ka'u | I know by cultural means | [kulnu] | ||
se'o | I know by internal experience | [senva] | ||
za'a | I observe | [zgana] | ||
pe'i | I opine / It is my opinion that... | [pensi] | ||
ru'a | I postulate / I presume | [sruma] | ||
ju'a | I state (elliptical discursive) | [jufra] |
Consecutive discourse:
cmavo | (nothing) | [gismu] |
---|---|---|
ku'i | however/but/in contrast | [karbi] |
ji'a | additionally | [jmina] |
si'a | similarly | [simsa] |
mi'u | ditto | [mintu] |
po'o | the only relevant case |
Commentary on words:
cmavo | (nothing) | -nai | [gismu] |
---|---|---|---|
va'i | in other words | in the same words | [valsi] |
ta'u | expanding a tanru | making a tanru | [tanru] |
Commentary on discourse:
cmavo | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai | [gismu] |
---|---|---|---|---|
li'a | clearly/obviously | obscurely | [klina] | |
ba'u | exaggeration | accuracy | understatement | [banli] |
zo'o | humorously | dully | seriously | |
sa'e | precisely speaking | loosely speaking | [satci] | |
to'u | in brief | in detail | [tordu] | |
do'a | generously | parsimoniously | [dunda] | |
sa'u | simply | elaborating | [sampu] | |
pa'e | justice | prejudice | [pajni] | |
je'u | truly/It is true that,... | falsely | [jetnu] |
Knowledge:
cmavo | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai | [gismu] |
---|---|---|---|---|
ju'o | certainly | uncertain | certainly not | [djuno] |
la'a | probably | improbably | [lakne] |
Discourse management:
cmavo | (nothing) | -cu'i | -nai | [gismu] |
---|---|---|---|---|
ta'o | by the way | (sometimes: speaking of which,...) | returning to point | [tanjo] |
ra'u | chiefly | equally | incidentally | [ralju] |
mu'a | for example | omitting ex. | end examples | [mupli] |
zu'u | on the one hand | on the other hand | ||
ke'u | repeating | continuing | [krefu] | |
da'i | supposing | in fact |
Miscellaneous indicators:
Attitudinal | (nothing) | -nai |
---|---|---|
ki'a | metalinguistic confusion | |
na'i | metalinguistic negator | |
jo'a | metalinguistic affirmer | |
li'o | omitted text (quoted material) | |
sa'a | material inserted by editor/narrator | |
xu | true-false question | |
pau | question premarker | rhetorical question |
pe'a | figurative language | literal language |
bi'u | new information | old information |
ge'e | non-specific indicator |
See also: Emotions
External links
- Lojban for Beginners Chapter 1 Section 6: Lojban with attitude!
- Lojban for Beginners Chapter 13 Section 1: Lojban with lots more attitude
- Lojban for Beginners Chapter 13 Section 2: My attitudinals! All mine! (And you?)
- Lojban Reference Grammar Chapter 13: Oooh! Arrgh! Ugh! Yecch! Attitudinal and Emotional Indicators
- the Cniglic Livejournal page