From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU Sat Jul 30 20:10:53 1994 Message-Id: <199407310010.AA28012@nfs1.digex.net> Date: Sat Jul 30 20:10:53 1994 Reply-To: ucleaar Sender: Lojban list From: ucleaar Subject: Re: current cmene project X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Bob LeChevalier In-Reply-To: (Your message of 30 Jul 94 14:16:00 EST.) Status: RO Bob Slaughter: > Naming is speaker-referent, not absolute. I'm sure the Native Americans had a > name for the swamp we later called Washington, D.C., and in some point in the > future, it may be called the Place-that-Was or some such by the > pos-nuclear-holocaust inhabitants of the area. (see the short story "By the > Waters of Babylon") Even now, some Americans have names for the place that are > not really suitable for a public forum. I quite agree, I can use any cmene I like to refer to Washington D.C. My point is that if someone is going to the trouble of thinking up a cmevla (cmene zei valsi) for Wash.D.C. then they might as well come up with a fuhivla (which is not a name, & whose meaning is absolute), since fuhivla are part of the language (or rather, I should say, part of the lexicon/grammar). What I am advocating is an innovation in the practise of Lojban, not in its principle. We already have gismu (or at least lujvo) for some countries, and fuhivla for other countries. I am merely extolling the virtues of extending the practise to cities. ---- And