From @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Thu Oct 7 16:20:29 1993 Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by NEBULA.SYSTEMSZ.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Thu, 7 Oct 1993 10:25:40 -0400 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by eli.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Thu, 7 Oct 1993 10:25:35 -0400 Message-Id: <199310071425.AA03416@eli.CS.YALE.EDU> Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 2669; Thu, 07 Oct 93 10:23:43 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 6855; Thu, 07 Oct 93 10:23:45 EDT Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 15:20:29 +0100 Reply-To: Colin Fine Sender: Lojban list From: Colin Fine Subject: Essay on Subcategorization To: Erik Rauch Status: RO X-Status: ESSAY ON SUBCATEGORISATION ======================== (Notes and explanation of lojban terms are at the bottom) There are two features +/-mass and +/-set which every terbri and every sumti may have; they may however be unspecified (~mass, ~set) Thus most terbri, I suggest are -set but se cmima is +set and many (eg 'cinri') are ~set most terbri are ~mass. (see note 1) Some, eg gunma, are +mass. I can't think of any that are -mass, but there may be a few. In addition, gadri may have these features. lei/loi are +mass ~set le'i/lo'i are +set -mass (note 2) le/lo are ~mass ~set When you construct a gadysu'i it accumulates features from both the pamoi terbri of the selgadri and the gadri. Examples: badna -set ~mass se cmima +set ~mass gunma -set +mass le badna -set ~mass le se cmima +set ~mass le gunma -set +mass lei badna -set +mass lei se cmima +set +mass (note 3) lei gunma -set +mass le'i badna +set -mass le'i se cmima +set -mass le'i gunma +set -mass (note 3) When you construct a bridi by filling the terbri with sumti, the subcategorisations must match. If the terbri is +feature the sumti must be +feature If the terbri is -feature the sumti must be -feature If the terbri is ~feature the sumti is free. Examples: le badna cu cmima = the banana(s) is/are member(s) (of some set) (-set ~mass) le'i badna cu se cmima = the set of bananas is a set (has members) (+set -mass) If they do not, I am unsure whether what you get is meaningless, or simply necessarily false: *ti cmima le badna (remoi terbri is +set, le badna is -set) Other cmavo ----------------------- la, lai, la'i clearly have the same subcategorisation as lo, loi, lo'i, but I suspect that they are opaque to the subcategorisation of their selgadri. Thus la gunma = 'the thing(s) named "Mass"' is ~mass, not +mass and lai se cmima = 'the mass of things named 'Set'" is +mass ~set li, lu and the other quote marks are -set -mass. lu'a, lu'i, lu'o have the same subcategorisation as lo, lo'i, loi respectively, and in general perform a constructive operation (note 2). Note that lu'a is ~mass ~set, not -mass -set: just because the individuals have been extracted, does not mean that they themselves can't be sets or masses. All pro-sumti (cmavo be zo ko'a) are neutral, or more specifically take the categorization of what they refer to. I believe that a similar scheme applies to abstractions, but I have not worked out the details yet. Notes ----- 1. I am not completely certain about this (ie that most terbri are ~mass). The claim rests on the proposition that lo badna cu gunma is meaningful. I believe it is, and that both the following are true: loi badna cu gunma lo badna ('The mass of bananas is a mass composed of bananas') lo badna cu gunma lo selci ('A banana is a mass composed of cells') (as well as other claims such as 'loi badna cu gunma lo selci'). If this is correct, then 'badna' must be ~mass. Then 'lo badna' is ~mass, and 'loi badna' is +mass, and both satisfy 'gunma'. If I am incorrect about this, then most terbri (including 'badna') are -mass, and 'loi badna' involves a construction (see note 2), but *lo badna cu gunma is either meaningless or necessarily false. 2. There is a difference in 'level' between sumti with individual gadri (le/lo) and set gadri (le'i/lo'i). One way to see this is to observe that lo broda cu broda necessarily but lo'i broda na broda in general I conceive this as being a 'construction' - lo'i 'constructs' a set from the items fitting the selbri - but I am hard put to be any more precise than this (and I don't want to get into any arguments about whether the set of items is already there or not!) I think that this 'construction' is implied whenever a +feature in the gadri overrides an explicit -feature in the selgadri, but not when the feature is unspecified in the selgadri. Thus, since most terbri are -set, most "lo'i broda" are constructive. If I am right that most terbri are ~mass (note 1) then most "loi broda" are not constructive, but if on the contrary they are mostly -mass then loi will normally be constructive. 3. It may seem odd that a sumti can be +mass +set, but I believe this works: 'lei se cmima' means 'the mass of sets', and can satisfy terbri that subcategorise for +set, +mass or both. It may or may not construct a mass, depending on the view of the ~mass feature, but will not construct a set. "le'i gumna" on the other hand means 'the set of masses' and is a set, not a mass. It is constructive of the set, but I don't think there is any special consequence of overriding the +mass with -mass. Glossary -------- badna banana x1 is a banana/plantain (fruit) of species/breed x2 bridi bri predicate x1 (du'u) is a predicate relationship with relation x2 among arguments (sequence/set) x3 broda rod predicate var 1 x1 is the 1st assignable variable predicate cinri ci'i interesting x1 (abstraction) interests/is interesting to x2; cmima mim cmi member x1 is a member of set x2/ belongs to group x2; gadri gad article x1 is an article/descriptor labelling description x2 in sentence x3, language x4, semantics x5 gadysu'i = gadri sumti = description argument. gunma gum jointly x1 is a mass/team/is together composed of components x2, considered jointly; pamoi terbri = 1st terbri sumti sum su'i argument x1 is a/the argument of predicate/function x2 filling place x3 (kindanumber) selgadri = se gadri = description (which I take to mean the selbri introduced by the gadri, using gadysu'i for the whole sumti) terbri = te bridi = is an argument role of predicate x3