What are the main differences between natural languages and Lojban?

  • Explicit predicate structure of arguments. Which throws natural language notions of case out the window (although prepositions are included as well): it really is a matter of argument #1, argument #2, rather than accusative, dative, etc.
  • Very explicit, computer-parsable syntax, with spoken brackets for syntactic structures.
  • Logical, rather than natural language, notions of negation. (Again, more natural representations are included alongside it.)
  • Berserk allomorphy in compounding, and no distinction between derivational morphology and compounding.
  • Differentiations in determiners that are also very logicish and independent of definiteness.
  • No substantial noun/verb distinction (the terms are avoided in Lojban); a noun is just a verb with a determiner, and thus can have tense or mood the same as a verb.
  • Locative as well as temporal tense and aspect, and explicit Vendlerian categories of aktionsart.

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