Something Unspecified

Zo'e, in LojbanLanguage, refers to something unspecified. It assumes that the listener either knows what it is or knows that it is irrelevant. If I say ".i mi klama" it is assumed to fill the four missing place structures of klama (to go or to come) - I haven't told you my destination.

Sounds like the principle of deleting parts of speech in the JapaneseLanguage. Any part of speech that is mutually understood may be deleted from a Japanese sentence.

[I'm not sure about that... LojbanLanguage also has a different word (zi'o) which deletes places from a selbri. --TaralDragon]

But in LoglanLanguage it is necessary not to delete the first place or you get a command... makes matters really confusing, as explained on the LojbanLanguage page regarding vizka la spat (that classic children's book), which in LojbanLanguage would have to be ko viska la spat. to make it a command rather than an assertion that someone sees spot.

Any different from the words like this, that, and it, or the omission of objects from transitive verbs in English?

Like it, but this is ti, and that is ta or tu, roughly corresponding to Spanish esto, eso, and aquel.

I'm sorry, I think I've misunderstood you. Deleting the first place doesn't create a command, and omission (zo'e) of a place doesn't equal deleting it. So these three phrases are different in meaning: {viska la spat} {ko viska la spat} {zi'o viska la spat}. -- td

Right. viska la spat. = (SomethingUnspecified/zo'e) sees spot.

ko viska la spat. = make the statement 'you see spot' true; See spot.

zi'o viska la spat. = Spot is seen (the seer of spot is not a part of the relation. The Seers of Spot would make a cool name for a rock band.)

Anyone else keep wanting to say "Zo'e" in English conversations? -- EmlynShannon

It's about as unspecified as ThisLinkToaNonexistentWikiPage? that will probably stay non-existent. :-)

A lot of expressions in the SchemeLanguage, such as define and set!, evaluate to SomethingUnspecified.

What about $_, @_, and <> in PerlLanguage?

Those are more like pronouns - the former two, at least. There are a slew of those in Lojban, but they are not based on gender and don't come in different singular and plural flavors like in many other languages. Some of them work like variables in programming languages, some refer relatively to specific parts of the previous conversation, and yet some abbreviate the word to just the first letter.

I think this has something to do with why I like to stand facing a seashore and take in what is happening there, or perhaps what makes a sunset more beautiful than a sunrise, a real rose more beautiful than an artificial one, however perfectly it may imitate it. Things changing cannot be very well specified, even when they can be fully appreciated. -- AnonymousOnPurpose