Beginning with this chapter, we dive into how Eberban actually works.
Eberban has two overarching word types: particles and content words. Some particles are content words and all content words are predicates.
Eberban predicates differ from Logic predicates. Henceforth, the usage of “predicate” will refer to an Eberban predicate.
Places
🪶 Jargon: Places (AKA slots)
Predicates are bound to arguments by places. We use them to express meaning with more detail.
Places can bind any number of arguments to a predicate any number of times.
Predicates have places.
The first of these places is called the context. It conveys some information automatically, like tense (walked/walks/will walk). By design, the context is always present yet hidden and not directly accessible. This lets us focus on the meaning we want to express.
The others are called overt places and are represented by the vowels {E,A,O,U}. They follow this order. For example, the vowels “E” and “A” represent the first and second overt places of a predicate respectively.
All predicates have the context place and any number of overt places. Let’s take a look at one:
✍️ Examples:
The property “mian” has one overt place E.
🔔 Reminder: Property
A unary predicate is called a property. We recommend reviewing the logic chapter if you still find this sort of jargon confusing.
Arguments
Places have an argument quantity and an argument type. This informs us about what kind of arguments a predicate may be bound to by its places.
“mian” is bound to any number of arguments of quantity tce* and type pan by
its E place.
Quantity
Most arguments that you’ll see will have their quantities expressed as sets. Sets can either be collective or distributive.
🪶 Jargon: Collective Sets vs. Distributive Sets
Set A is a subset of set B if the members of A are also members of B.
A collective set denotes an exact quantity of the argument type. This is
expressed by a root starting with tc-.
A distributive set denotes a plural quantity that also works for subsets of the
argument type. This is expressed with one of the tc- roots followed by *.
The argument quantity of the E place of “mian” is tce*. tce denotes a
non-empty set, and * tells us that we can use any subset of this non-empty
set. This effectively means one or more.
🪶 Jargon: Quantity annotation
This “one or more” quantity is so common that we’ll suffix nouns and pronouns
with the symbol + to annotate them with said quantity.
On the occasion you do see it, the lack of a tc- root denotes an unspecified
quantity. We’ll teach ways to further specify quantity in a later chapter.
Type
Arguments are either typed as atom or predicate.
Atoms
🪶 Jargon: Atoms
Atoms are non-predicates; they have no intrinsic meaning. An atom acquires meaning when a place binds said atom to its predicate. When bound, they’re used to represent anything from an idea to a cat. In this state, atoms can be considered nouns.
The argument at the E place of “mian” has the pan type. Which, if we look it
up:
Will tell us that the type is a physical entity. So “mian” is bound to a
physical entity+ by its E place.
Predicates
The predicate type is denoted with brackets. The number of letters inside the brackets tells us the arity.
✍️ Examples:
“gli” is bound to a physical entity+ by its E place, and to a proposition by
its A place.