View source for internal grammar of numbers


It is clear that there exists an internal grammar of numbers

in Lojban, even though it has not been fully worked out or

made explicit. For example ''su'o re ci'' has to be understood

as ''su'o(reci)'' and not as ''(su'ore)ci''. ''re ci ce'i'' has to

be understood as ''(reci)ce'i'' and not as ''re(cice'i)'', so the

rule is nothing as simple as left or right grouping. In fact

the digits are usually joined the tightest, which is why I

don't like making ''ji'i'' an exceptionally tight digit modifier.

It is hard enough that we have to make out the value of each

digit just from its position. Adding ''ji'i'' in the middle makes

this harder by creating interference and breaking the

three-digit groupings that we have to use to get the value

of each one right.

This is clearly incomplete, but it can serve as a starting point:

{CODE(wrap="1",ishtml="0]]

<pre-sign> = (ji'i|su'e|su'o|me'i|za'u|da'a)...

<sign> = ma'u|ni'u

<digit> = no|pa|re|ci|vo|mu|xa|ze|bi|so|dau|fei|gai|jau|rei|vai|ki'o|xo

<real> = [[<pre-sign>]][[<sign>]](ci'i ai|te'o|[[<digit>...]][[pi [<digit>...]][[ra'e <digit>...]])

<complex> = [[<real>]][[ka'o <real>]]

<n-tuple> = [[<complex>]][[pi'e <complex>]]...

<fraction> = [[<real>]][[fi'u <real>]]

<indef> = ro|so'a|so'e|so'i|so'o|so'u|no'o|rau|du'e|mo'a

<quantif> = tu'o | [[pi|pi]][[<pre-sign>]][[<indef>]]  <real>[[ce'i|ce'i]] | <fraction>

</code>