English Translation
She is my daughter.
In Lojban, “pa ta me mi tixnu” is a sentence constructed with relatively simple Lojbanic grammar. Let’s break it down:
- pa - the number one (1)
- ta - demonstrative pronoun, meaning ‘that’ (referring to something nearby)
- me - turns the following construct into a selbri; it is used to describe something with a sumti (which is somewhat like a noun or pronoun in English).
- mi - first-person singular pronoun, meaning ‘I’ or ‘me’
- tixnu - root word (gismu) for ‘daughter’
In this sentence, “me mi tixnu” functions as the predicate, describing “ta” (that). When “me” is used with a sumti such as “mi tixnu” (my daughter), it forms a selbri that can be roughly translated as “is a thing related to my daughter” or “is one of my daughters”.
However, without context, this Lojban sentence is slightly ambiguous because Lojban syntax is very flexible, and a sentence can often have more than one interpretation. The primary reading of “pa ta me mi tixnu” would likely be “That is one of my daughters,” but it could also be read as “One of those is my daughter” depending on the context and the specific emphasis intended by the speaker.
To clarify, Lojban grammar is based on predicate logic, so most sentences revolve around a selbri (a word or phrase functioning as a predicate) and one or more sumti (words or phrases functioning as subjects, objects, or other semantically related entities). In this case, “me mi tixnu” forms a complex predicate and “ta” is the sumti to which the predicate is applied, with “pa” indicating the quantity of the sumti, which is one.