Message-Id: <199509200140.VAA06977@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Tue, 19 Sep 1995 20:20:05 EDT
Reply-To: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject:      Re: stiff
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

And:
> So that's where {jdari} comes in?

I don't know. In English, hard/firm has more to do with three-dimensional
stuff, and stiff/rigid/inflexible with one or two dimensional. I don't
know if that is the intended distinction for Lojban.

> > In general, I haven't figured out yet how to deal with places
> > that are defined as "in direction x" or "in dimension x".
> > Any suggestions? How would you say {fe [inwardly]} anyway?
>
> {fe lo nerfaa (be le noa)}, or {fe lo nenri (be le noa)}?

If {ta tinsa lo nenri}, does that mean that the object is in
relationship {tinsa} with its insides? Maybe, I don't know.

As for {nerfa'a}, I'm not sure what it is. What kind of object
fills the x1 of {farna}? What exactly does {nenri} do here?
It's not the x2 of {farna}, and certainly not the x3, the "origin"
of the direction.

> For dimensions there are lujvo from {cimde}.

Well, {cimde} gives me similar difficulties. I don't really know
what to put in the x1. How do you say "this is two-dimensional"?

> You know this, so
> there must be some problem I'm failing to see.

It's just that I'm still not happy with my understanding of how
to talk about space properties in Lojban (including the space tenses).
I'm not saying that there is something wrong with it, just that
I still haven't figured it out. (Time is much easier, being just
one-dimensional and with a fixed direction.)

Jorge