Re: CPE: Corliss Lamont

[Lee Daniel Crocker <lcrocker@CALWEB.COM>]

> > I don't think that works at all.  Even though neither "thick"
> > nor "finger" fills a place of the other here, there should be
> > no question that tsudegji is a kind of finger, and degro'u is
> > a kind of thickness--perhaps one could describe a branch as
> > being finger-thick.  Surely one should not abandon the basic
> > rule that a tanru is a kind of (its tertau)?
>
> This invocation of the "basic rule" is superficially correct,
> but actually conceals a deep flaw (one that most English-speakers
> tend to make from time to time): "rotsu" as a noun does not mean
> "thickness", but "thick thing".  Being a "finger" is no more
> fundamental in Lojban than being a "thick thing".

Of course.  Thanks for the reminder.  So a "degro'u" is a fingerish
kind of thick thing, whereas "tsudegji" is a thick kind of finger.
Either works for thumb, then, I agree, but I'm still not quite sure I
would treat them as symmetrical, because I would be surprized if a
tsudegji was not in fact a finger, but not so surprized if a degro'u
weren't, even though it might be.

> Symmetrical lujvo are well-established in the language:  "blanyzdani"
> means a house which is blue, or a blue thing which is a house,
> as you will.  On one view, indeed, the asymmetrical lujvo are
> actually elliptical:  asymmetric "degro'u" can be understood
> as "te ke degji je te rotsu".

Yes, I was initially skeptical of many of them that make more sense
on deeper inspection, but I think it makes even more sense to stay
skeptical--especially when the place structures of the gismu are
very different.  Even in the example you gave, I would immediately
expect to be able to live in a blanyzdani, but I would not make
that assumption about a zdanyblanu, even though the latter /might/
be describing the same thing as the former--it might also be describing
something entirely different that is blue in a housely kind of way.

Is there some other subtlety I'm missing, or am I just being more
pedantic than necessary?

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>  <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC