se goi

Assignments with goi are ambiguous in some cases, such as ko'a goi ko'e: does it assign ko'a to ko'e or vice-versa? There is a way to solve this. Let goi mean {the left thing}, from now on referred to as {the right thing}, and se goi the reverse. Ambiguity disappears. For example:

• ko'a goi ko'e – it-1, from now on referred to as it-2;
• la .alis. se goi ti – Alice, which from now on refers to this thing here.

One can extend this principle to all of GOI, with se swapping sides. For example, po = possessed by → se po = possessing, and po'e = intrinsically possessed by → se po'e = intrinsically possessing. (Actually, se pe, se no'u and se po'u are not different from their non-se equivalents.)

Official data

5.2) la .alis. klama le zarci .i ko'a goi la .alis. cu blanu Alice goes-to the store. It-1, also-known-as Alice, is-blue. [literally]

Syntactically, goi la .alis. is a relative phrase (relative phrases are explained in Chapter 8). Semantically, it says that ko'a and la .alis. refer to the same thing, and furthermore that this is true because ko'a is being defined as meaning la .alis.. It is equally correct to say:

5.3) la .alis. klama le zarci .i la .alis. goi ko'a cu blanu Alice goes-to the store. Alice, also-known-as it-1, is-blue. [literally]

in other words, goi is symmetrical.

— Reference grammar, 1 edition