Syntactic sugar

My aim with my language (which really needs a name!) is for everything to be expressible using a small subset of the grammar, just as Haskell has its underlying Core language. As I currently imagine it, my core language contains rules about tokenisation, understanding tag clusters and using jumps to change which selbri a tag points to. But to make the language bearable, we need a bit more. I've introduced a few features already, particularly in the last post.

I'll start with some features that change what selbri tags refer to. I've already introduced 〈)〉, but I'll start with jumps. Jumps, which I'll write 〈<〉 and 〈>〉, move the choice for the next selbri either to the left or right. This setting lasts until the end of the tag cluster. For example, we can say 〈gerku plipe <fafa〉 and 〈>fafa gerku plipe〉, which both mean the same as 〈gerku fafa plipe〉. Possibly a more realistic example is 〈2 fafe<fi + fafa 4〉, where both the 〈fe〉 and the 〈fi〉 refer to 〈+〉. Additionally, there are 〈<|〉 and 〈>|〉, with macro expansions 〈<|tag〉 → 〈<tag>〉 and 〈>|tag〉 → 〈>tag<〉. These can be called “temporary jumps”. To make 〈<|<|〉 work as expected, the grammar contains “tag ::= jump tag”.

Jumps are fairly low-level, and could get complicated if used a lot. They're a bit like GOTOs, but they can't do anything crazy like reaching inside function brackets. A pair of alternatives, which I've partially introduced, is 〈(〉 and 〈)〉. 〈(〉 goes before a selbri, and hides it from all preceding tags. Similarly, 〈)〉 goes after a selbri, and hides it from all following tags. These are useful for creating sentences with more than one “noun” to one side of the “main verb”. These have less power than jumps, but are usually enough. They leave us with as much power as Lojban has!

A final necessary feature for tag clusters is 〈ku〉. It's used to separate tag clusters, and can be used to join multiple pairs of places from adjacent selbri, without joining the pairs to each other. I use it in the example from the next paragraph, and I think that what it does is obvious.

Another thing that can give text structure is use of function brackets. I've shown the use of 〈ke ... ke'e〉 where the expression's 〈fa〉, 〈fe〉 and 〈fi〉 places (function, first argument and second argument, respectively) are filled, but other places can be filled, too. In reality, my language is to have semantic tags (like BAI, or cases from natural languages), rather than positional tags (FA), so there are many tags to choose from. What tags the expression shows on the outside are defined inside using the selbri 〈cei〉. This makes it easy to define arbitrary selbri on-the-fly. For example, {batkyci'a} (“fa writes fe on medium fi using keyboard fo”) can be replicated by the expression 〈ke ciska fafa ku fefe ku fifi ku fofofa cei gunma fefa batka ke'e fa〉. Lojban requires paraphrasing to achieve the same kind of definition.

I have some more features to explain (I haven't even got to 〈vei ... ve'o〉 yet), but I've decided to split this post into two. By the way, any ideas about what I can call this language? I'm thinking of translating “join language” or “link language”, but I haven't even decided how to make compound words yet. I could also go for something idealistic, like “symmetry language”, but then I'd be worried about the possibility of there being a language which is more symmetrical.