Return-Path: From: cbmvax!uunet!mullian.ee.Mu.OZ.AU!nsn Message-Id: <199108252354.AA04337@munagin.ee.mu.OZ.AU> To: lojbab@snark.thyrsus.com (Bob LeChevalier) Cc: lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com, nsn@mullian.ee.Mu.OZ.AU Subject: Re: response to korant on loopholes In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 23 Aug 91 02:25:00 EDT." Date: Mon, 26 Aug 91 09:54:45 +1000 Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Sun Aug 25 21:08:48 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!mullian.ee.Mu.OZ.AU!nsn >To >people from cultures with only two color words, Lojban will have multiple >roots for the same color. xlali (bad) and xamgu (good) have identical place >structures, but are not hte same concept. Can you say that to'erxamgu >(the polar opposite of good) is identical in meaning to xlali? I can't. 1. Not quite true that they'd see us talking about the same colour. People with less colour words than English (when one excludes French loans, Greek has only six) can still distinguish the other colours; it's just that the don't see the point in doing so. Don't extend Whorf to physiology, Bob! The attitude of such people to Lojban words will be simply that they are making oversubtle distinctions, which is also our reaction to magenta and cyan as gismu. As for the lojban {to'e}: it has been the experiencre of Esperanto that the language abhors synonyms, and distinctions between the un- form latent in the language and the non-un- form introduced routinely evolve, initially stylisti- cally, and later often also significantly semantically. But until now in Esperanto, no equivalent to {xlali} has succeeded in ousting the equivalent of {to'erxamgu}; indeed, one Esperantist has commented that the person who introduces such an arbitrary neologism to replace one of the best established compounds in the language is capable of murdering their own mother. In Esp, to'erxamgu *is* xlali. So let's not try and anticipate semantic evolution too much. Nick.