Received: from mail-ia0-f185.google.com ([209.85.210.185]:52497) by stodi.digitalkingdom.org with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1TocIq-0004IE-O0; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:57:06 -0800 Received: by mail-ia0-f185.google.com with SMTP id y10sf6027945iak.2 for ; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:56:50 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlegroups.com; s=20120806; h=x-received:x-beenthere:x-received:x-received:received-spf:from:to :subject:date:message-id:user-agent:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:x-original-sender:x-original-authentication-results :reply-to:precedence:mailing-list:list-id:x-google-group-id :list-post:list-help:list-archive:sender:list-subscribe :list-unsubscribe:content-type; bh=PqJqEC8quoq2CM3CJsxWop3MONU+4jbFzFnWc5SG+QA=; b=Dl87mgWyVkDrr2T3yghtY2ZWIwXiExrjxQGrWQ4wrL+UvECqLKhGPZYCo7I5fdKLtY nCQWLCQA5HGsYfI1G0l5qIe7fp+2qZgyw8snFx0fhff5pp2yiKbUtF2unTH/FA/eeYKV 9FyU6ubiGhzV2ft7vYPSJnhbiVDBYzlBRvnd3UuvXo+nscv4kvRChqT8FGuCqfS/Xnha JQvmxkZeuQeQUgSKGaO4lsundn2POy0o8gnVAPknDmEBnGENKfvBJcK4x0OW3Ki1MFFd SbjzTehqz8mCCGUEiqfoXe29wBHeNgHZLPdGjuDcDV8bmjRENZ35jpZDYqKOPyxAckhG sLeQ== X-Received: by 10.49.1.162 with SMTP id 2mr1977545qen.2.1356710210053; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:56:50 -0800 (PST) X-BeenThere: lojban@googlegroups.com Received: by 10.49.0.102 with SMTP id 6ls4730532qed.24.gmail; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:56:48 -0800 (PST) X-Received: by 10.236.158.105 with SMTP id p69mr14753761yhk.10.1356710208663; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:56:48 -0800 (PST) X-Received: by 10.236.158.105 with SMTP id p69mr14753759yhk.10.1356710208650; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:56:48 -0800 (PST) Received: from chausie ([2001:470:8:42:2c0:f0ff:fe3b:b5b5]) by gmr-mx.google.com with ESMTP id i27si2707169yhe.4.2012.12.28.07.56.48; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:56:48 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 2001:470:8:42:2c0:f0ff:fe3b:b5b5 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of phma@bezitopo.org) client-ip=2001:470:8:42:2c0:f0ff:fe3b:b5b5; Received: from caracal.localnet (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by chausie (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB0722089D for ; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:56:47 -0500 (EST) From: Pierre Abbat To: lojban@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] curnu Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:56:49 -0500 Message-ID: <104367346.6AoMEimZjU@caracal> User-Agent: KMail/4.8.5 (Linux/3.2.0-34-generic; KDE/4.8.5; x86_64; ; ) In-Reply-To: References: <5901091.L7RAquOyoW@caracal> <7626898.ZEy1MSiyjN@caracal> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Original-Sender: phma@bezitopo.org X-Original-Authentication-Results: gmr-mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 2001:470:8:42:2c0:f0ff:fe3b:b5b5 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of phma@bezitopo.org) smtp.mail=phma@bezitopo.org Reply-To: lojban@googlegroups.com Precedence: list Mailing-list: list lojban@googlegroups.com; contact lojban+owners@googlegroups.com List-ID: X-Google-Group-Id: 1004133512417 List-Post: , List-Help: , List-Archive: Sender: lojban@googlegroups.com List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Spam-Score: -0.0 (/) X-Spam_score: -0.0 X-Spam_score_int: 0 X-Spam_bar: / On Friday, December 28, 2012 05:08:41 la gleki wrote: > Any worm-like creatures, I believe. > I remember that children can sometimes name worms "snakes". The issue is > somewhat related. > And this is not the problem of Lojban. > Can we call snakes reptiles? They used to be called reptiles. > Some new school textbooks have already started to deny that, however. The problem with "reptile" is that the traditional circumscription is paraphyletic. If you call snakes and crocodiles, but not birds, reptiles, you run afoul of the dinosaurs. Birds are a branch of coelurosaurs, which are dinosaurs, and dinosaurs and crocodiles are both archosaurs, whereas snakes are not. But as long as "respa" has a consistent definition, there is no Lojbanic problem, even if it is paraphyletic. The problem with "curnu" is that it has an ambiguous definition or two competing definitions. It's okay to have a fuzzy definition (there's no clear boundary between "blanu" and "crino"), but it's not OK for a brivla to have two different meanings, "worm" and "invertebrate". Lobsters are invertebrates but not worms; slowworms are worms but not invertebrates. Pierre -- gau do li'i co'e kei do -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group. To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.