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Date:         Tue, 13 Apr 1993 14:51:14 +1000
Reply-To: Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>
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From: Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>
Subject:      lujvo paper, part 3.2.
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To: Erik Rauch <erikr@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU>
Status: OR
Message-ID: <6Fzkag1AwOC.A.pH.k00kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org>

3.2. belenu-lujvo place structure ordering

In a belenu-lujvo, place structure ordering is simple, and echoes that in
the GDS: the seltanru places appear nested amongst the tertanru places,
in the place of the tertanru abstraction place they are associated with.

For example, {posydji}, to want something for oneself, has places d1=p1, d3,
p2. d2 is {lenu ponse}, and is thus redundant; we have decided that p3, the
law of ownership, is an irrelevant detail in an expression of desire. We have
also decided that {posydji} should express wanting something for oneself.
To express wanting something for someone else (namely, for {le ponse} to
be different to {le djica}), a less frequent concept, we will allow a longer
expression. This occurs frequently with lujvo: leaving in many places makes
the concept more general; leaving out certain places, eg. by overlap as above,
makes the concept more specific. Since we usually want to express this more
specific concept, we feel it deserves its own 'word' more than the more
general concept. 'To want something for oneself', for example, does have
its own word in English: 'to want'. 'To want something for someone else',
on the other hand, does not get compressed in that way. For that reason,
we will say {ko'a posydji le solji}, instead of {ko'a posydji ko'a le solji},
for "he wants the gold [for himself]", and {ko'a djica lenu ko'e ponse le
solji}, instead of {ko'a posydji ko'e le solji}, for "he wants her to have
the gold, he wants the gold for her".

As we have outlined, the places of {ponse} should be nested in the d2 place
of {djica}. Thus, the GDS of {posydji} is:

le djica cu djica lenu le djica cu ponse le se ponse zo'e kei le te djica

and it makes sense to put the {ponse} places in place of the redundant {lenu}
place in {djica}:

le djica cu posydji le se ponse le te djica

which matches what we'd expect in English (X wants to own Y for purpose Z).

belenu-lujvo place structure ordering can be applied to be-lujvo as well.
Typically, however, there are so few seltanru places remain after place
selection (thanks to Lean Lujvo), that the effect is imperceptible. Thus
{ninpe'i}, to be introduced to, to meet for the first time, is a be-lujvo:
le se cnino penmi cu penmi le se penmi cnino le te penmi. The places are
p1=c2, p2=c1, p3. belenu-lujvo ordering will place {le cnino} "in place"
of {le se penmi}. But leaving the places in the order they have in the
tertanru, {penmi}, has the same effect: p1=c2, p2=c1, p3.

An interesting example of a be-lujvo is {xande'icalku}, fingernail. The
seltanru of this lujvo is {xande'i}, finger. The relevant places here are
d1 and x2=d2. {xande'i} is a quasi-be-lujvo; if we reinterpret {le se degji}
to indicate the body part the digit is part of, then the GDS becomes

le degji cu degji le xance be le se xance,

where {le xance} is omitted as irrelevant. Now {calku} has three places:
the shell itself, what the shell encases, and what the shell consists of.
Treating {xande'icalku} as a be-lujvo, the {se calku} is the {xande'i},
and its places substitute c2 in the final lujvo, whose places are thus:
c1 d1 x2 c3. But the same reasoning which led us to discard {le xance}
from the place structure of {xande'i} makes us drop {le degji} from the
place structure of {xande'icalku}, leaving the place structure:

x1 is a fingernail of entity x2, made of x3.


Nick S. Nicholas,                      "Rode like foam on the river of pity
CogSci & CompSci student,               Turned its tide to strength
University of Melbourne, Australia.     Healed the hole that ripped in living"
nsn@{munagin.ee|mundil.cs}.mu.oz.au           - Suzanne Vega, Book Of Dreams
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