Return-Path: <@SEGATE.SUNET.SE:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET> Received: from SEGATE.SUNET.SE by xiron.pc.helsinki.fi with smtp (Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #1) id m0sh1WR-0000ZHC; Sat, 12 Aug 95 00:21 EET DST Message-Id: Received: from segate.sunet.se by SEGATE.SUNET.SE (LSMTP for OpenVMS v0.1a) with SMTP id ADB0985F ; Fri, 11 Aug 1995 23:21:41 +0200 Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 13:34:15 -0700 Reply-To: "John E. Clifford" Sender: Lojban list From: "John E. Clifford" Subject: negation X-To: lojban list To: Veijo Vilva Content-Length: 1106 Lines: 18 The Lojban "negation" concepts were developed in large measure from reading a book called Negation (by someone whose name I forget now, Horn?). As a result we have not only sentential negation (contradiction) but a number of predicate negations: complement (non-) and polar opposite (large-small, e.g.) and, if I remember rightly, a reversing process (make-unmake) and even a does-not-apply kind (for asking about the size of beauty, for example, or as a response to "Have you stopped beating your wife." While some of these are dubiously negations, they all are brought together by the name of the book and by some logical relations among them, particularly ties-in with the unquestionable negation: sentential. As for why we do not use these concept more often, the best answer seems to be the old one that the gismu list is not a set of semantic primes but a list of common and useful words which are at least enough to define any prdicate we want. Convenience, not strict definition, was the goal (and, beside, "small" is probably clearer and more accurate than "opposite of large"). pc>|83