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I would say there are (at least) three types of compounds: (I thought four, but Xorban isn't Lojban as I'm beginning to realize more and more)
1. Parallel compounds (Lojban "je") 2. Transitive compounds x. [removed] 3. Loose, metaphorical compounds, tanru. 1. Parallel compoundsAll places of the two predicates are shared, e.g. "ta xunre je zdani" - "that is red and a house of someone". These compounds are rather rare in Lojban because it has such long place structures, which means it's rare to find a time where all places would properly aline and work together to make sense. This is where shorter place structures and more regular place structures come in handy. However, since it seems that in Xorban, a predicate always has as many places as are being filled, this doesn't seem to be a problem.
Parallel compounds in Xorban are easily handled with "je". la zdnaka'a je xnra dnja My home is a red building. 2. Transitive compoundsThese are common in Lojbanic languages. One example are the -gau lujvo, e.g. "kakygau" decomposes into "gasnu lo nu klaku", that is, the first part of the lujvo gets inserted in a place of the right part of the lujvo. Right now, these can be handled using the usual Xorban syntax, but it's a bit clumsy sometimes.
la mmtaka'a le fe klka'a gsnake My mother brought about that I cried.Note that instead of the usual gasnu definition x1 brings about x2 (fa), we could also use a slightly different one: x1 makes that x2 does/is x3 (fa). Trying to use this makes me note that it's not possible, since Xorban requires every formula to have a desinence, and there is currently no variable that refers to a ce'u-like thing, if there were, however, then:
la mmtaka'a le fe klke'u gsnaka'akeHere, klke'u is a sort of abstract infinitive, and is filled automatically by whatever is in the x2 of the (altered) gasnu.
This solution is yet longer than the first, though, so maybe this kind of place structure isn't the best for Xorban.
Anyway, these are fine as normal sentences, but I think they could be shortened a little bit by introducing a new binary operator that creates transitive compounds. If possible, I would propose "jo", otherwise, pick one that would work.
The semantics of "jo" would be that one of the left formula's places gets filled with the right formula, depending on which ones have the same type (event of concrete), and it would also be hard-coded into place structures which places get filled in such compounds.
Here's an example: la mlta jo gsna'a plpa The cat, I make that she jumps I made the cat jump. The other sentence becomes: la mmtaka'a jo gsna klka'a My mother, she made me cry.Now, I know that gsna there according to some would not at all refer to anything but the thing bound by A. But I think that this can be coded into the semantics of "jo", which I'll explain below.
I also have a potential problem with the idea that bcda only has one place. Namely, it causes some weird situations like this one:
A: "la rcta ctke'eka" B: "na ctka'a" A: "Do you eat meat." B: "I don't eat."Now here, B would be lying if they were eating something else. This meanas that Xorban doesn't let you elide things as easily, which is why I'm not sure it's good to say that there be no zo'e in ctka at all.
Anyway, the way "jo" could handle this semantic problem is by saying that jo FORMULA is a new formula whose place structure (definition) is determined by what is modifies. That is, in "jo gsna klka'a", the following happens:
jo gsna becomes a modifier of klk, which thereby gets a new definition determined from the compouding rules, such that "x1 cries" becomes "x1 cries caused by A". Now we just add a desinence to this compound predicate, jo gsna klka'a, which then means "I cry caused by A".
Here is another example to round it off: la bdna jo tca kkta Bananas are very delicious.(I think tc- should be the root for "x1 is very x2 (fa) (unless you're planning on introducing lambda calculus à la ka-ce'u into Xorban)).
3. Loose, metaphorical compoundsThese are just to fill the gaps that remain. Sometimes, a human being won't want to care about perfect logic and just throw together some words freely. I had some other solutions for this, but again they seem to be meant for a language other than Xorban. This suggestion seems to work:
cpno'e zfra'a I am birdly free. I am free as a bird. Some other vague meaning.Maybe it can be made even more referent-less, by using the aforementioned -e'u variable:
cpne'u zfra'a I hope some of this is useful and that I didn't forget anything. co q selpahi qa'a -- pilno zo le xu .i lo dei bangu cu se cmene zo lojbo .e nai zo lejbo doị mèlbi mlenì'u .i do càtlu ki'u ma fe la xàmpre ŭu .i do tìnsa càrmi gi'e sìrji se tàrmi .i taị bo pu cìtka lo gràna ku .