X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Message-ID: <34F4440F.BFB5443B@locke.ccil.org> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 11:17:19 -0500 From: John Cowan Organization: Lojban Peripheral X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (WinNT; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Lojban List Subject: Re: kissing (was: Re: Summary so far on DJUNO) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From-Space-Date: Wed Feb 25 11:18:37 1998 X-From-Space-Address: - la .and. cusku di'e > > Mathematicians, too. Circles and spheres are said to kiss when they > > intersect at a single point only. I see no reason why, if people > > can "sarji" a language, circles cannot "cinba". > > If you're imaginative enough, I'm sure circles can sneeze too. Or > perform conjouring tricks or whatever. But is this not *metaphor*? > [W]e do need to distinguish between core/literal meaning > and peripheral/meaphorical meaning. Indeed, but how? The place structures put constraints on this. If the place structure of cinba had been "x1 kisses x2 using configuration x3 of mouthparts x4", then circles could not kiss, at least not without a tanru or lujvo. But since the true place structure is the simple " ... at locus x3", it seems to me that circles can kiss, and that certain types of caresses may be {cinba be te da} as well. Kissing mouth to mouth is undoubtedly the central concept, and there is a periphery which is definitely cut off ("blowing kisses" is not a "nu cinba", because there is no x3). But I think the extension to circles or other geometric objects ("locus" being itself a geometric term) is well within the pericentral area. As for sneezing, circles might be able to do that (one-place predicates are rather loosely controlled), but coughing and puking are definitely out. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (FW 16.5)