Subject: Again: le se gerku zi'o

From: "Alfred W. Tueting (Tüting)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 20:18:39 -0000

I remember an illustrated volume on saurians with all the different
types listed and thoroughly designed in detail: We can say that 
the saurians once had lived on our globe a long, long time ago, that
they're extinct since then and - it is most probable they're never 
to come again.
Now let us find a Lojban word for them, say, the lujvo brabrarespa?
from: 
respa res reptile x1 is a reptile of species/breed x2
brabrarespa: barda+barda+respa saurian x1 is a saurian of
species/breed x2
and hence: se brabrarespa or selbrabrarespa!
There indeed is no (at least 'potential') brabrarespa, but (see
above) scientific volumes filled with descriptions, classifications, 
genetics etc.: there indeed must be a Lojban word like /se
brabrarespa (zi'o???)/ to mirror our present world! Language in the 
first place is subordinate to reality (though maybe sometimes also
can influence the world around us through its speakers 
perception).
I'd imagine zi'oing out the 2nd place in fact is *not* necessary if
the x1 place's "potentiality" is not only directed into the future, 
but also into the past! I must admit that it is hard to think of dog
breeds with dogs that never existed, do not exist now and never will 
be in all future. Is it enough for the mentioned "potentiality" that
something only exists in human imagination? zi'oing out the dogs, 
logically could mean that they don't even exist in our minds - and
that is *not* allowed! So my conclusion is that it must be allowed 
by logic to use, say, selbrabrarespa (without any zi'o!) for things
only existing in our minds, because a breed of *unthinkable* 
creatures (se C zi'o) is illogical! 

co'o mi'e .aulun.