Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Careful with noi!

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 16:58:30 EDT

In a message dated 00-08-20 13:04:16 EDT, taral writes:

<< I have noted that the classic "empty bottle" (e.g. the mountain dew bottle
next to me) is still a /botpi/, since it contains air, or
pseudo-"emptiness", since "nothing" has the additional meaning (in
english) of "of no consequence, significance, or interest" --
basically zo'e. I think most people would not call air a "thing". Does air
qualify for /da/? If so, we need something like "zo'e" which means not
"something obvious or irrelevant" but that "nothing" which English uses. >>

The problem is really about a genuine (or at least a stated) nothing. Air 
does count as a something, a replacement for {da}. But I think that it does 
count as obvious or irrelevant for the usual purposes, so nothing new is 
needed. For that matter, as noted, {no da} works practically, if not 
literally. 

<<If I want to express that something is bottle-like (in shape), then I might 
use /botpi be zi'o/ ... to express that it is not bottle-like in contents.>> 

It would be equally good -- and clearer -- to say {botpi tarmi} or some such. 
And the content place may still be useful, since a Riesling bottle is a very 
different shape from a Coke bottle, say.