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Date:         Thu, 31 Aug 1995 14:45:19 EDT
Reply-To: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
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From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject:      Re: Names
X-To:         lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR
X-From-Space-Date: Thu Aug 31 18:12:46 1995
X-From-Space-Address: <@PSUVM.PSU.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>

I just realized that there is a much better way of creating
a predicate out of a name than using {me} or {du}.

{me} is not so good because it means "pertains to", so
{mi me la xorxes} doesn't really say that I am Jorge, but
rather that I pertain to Jorge in some way, for example
I could say {mi me la buenosaires}, which doesn't mean that
I am Buenos Aires.

{du} doesn't really create a predicate, it just identifies
two sumti, which is a different thing.

But there is a way to make a real predicate out of a name,
using {zei}:

        mi cu zei xorxes

(Something else could be used instead of {cu}, but {cu}
seems perfect for it, because it adds no semantic baggage.
Of course {mi cu cu zei xorxes} is also grammatical.)

Jorge