From reciproc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca Sat Oct 23 20:09:40 1999
X-Digest-Num: 264
Message-ID: <44114.264.1429.959273825@eGroups.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 21:09:40 -0600 (MDT)
From: reciproc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
Subject: Re: why are selbri relations so arbitrary?

coi

la jocua. pu ciska di'e
> ex. vencu x1 (seller) sells x2 (goods) to x3 (buyer) for x4 (price)
> 
> Four completely arbitrary arguments which are somewhat specific to time and culture, and if nothing else, requre simple memorization. What's wrong with the prepositions this replaces?
>
> I would envision the language being as consistant and simple as possible, requiring as little memorization as possible with the exception of the rules of grammar. Why so arbitrary with the selbri?

The argument for doing selbri the way they are is that prepositions like
"to" and "for" have no real meaning outside the particular verb. "To" in
English can be a receiver, a destination, or a result, for example. Even
if one were to have various different preposition-like things to
specifically, the point is that using them would require memorization
of even more words, and the prepositions chosen would have a tendency be
biased towards English.

In any case, the syntax of any language's predicates is more or less
arbitrary, and most of the places are ordered the same throughout similar
gismu--I can't think of any gismu where the place for the sender follows
the receiver, for example.

I hope that made sense, I'm a bit tired...

co'omi'e xarmuj.