[lojban-beginners] Re: zgana, viska, catlu

[Matt Arnold <matt.mattarn@gmail.com>]

coi .xiliodr.
   We can't have this perfectly. While creating the Lojban project it
was discovered that this was impossible. You could break up {ninmu}
"woman" into pieces: {fetsi remna} "female human." But then you can
break up human into pieces as well. And you can break up female into
pieces. You can break up viska, and sudden, and intentional, into
multiple words. But this would never stop because you could break up
those words too. So what the language designers did was blanket
semantic space with overlapping blankets. Each word overlaps other
words so that every meaning is covered thoroughly.
   Even if you design a new vocabulary and avoid having overlap, it
would just be one person's opinion on where the borders of one meaning
ends and another meaning begins. No one would agree.
   Multiple words with subtle differences are actually good. They
provide multiple solutions to speech problems. A system that lacks
redundancy is brittle, not flexible.
   By the way. You could say "sudden see" {suksa viska} but it
wouldn't mean {zgana}. It would be more restricted in meaning, in two
ways: 1. {zgana} is not about sudden-ness. 2. {zgana} is not just
about visual seeing. The X3 place of {zgana} is what senses or means
are used for observation, which might not be sight.
   Thanks for your great questions.
-epkat

zgana x1 observes/notices/watches/beholds x2 using senses/means x3
under conditions x4
catlu x1 looks at/examines/views/inspects/regards/watches/gazes at x2
viska x1 sees/views/perceives visually x2 under conditions x3
ganse x1 [observer] senses/detects/notices stimulus property x2 (ka)
by means x3 under conditions x4
jvinu x1 is the view/scene/panorama/sight/prospect of x2
(object/location) from point-of-view x3

On 8/19/05, HeliodoR <exitconsole@gmail.com> wrote:
> Couldn't we use only one of the above root-words (since they have quite the
> same origin: visual observing) together with some cmavo? 
> Like this: 
> zgana - 'sudden viska' 
> catlu - 'intentional viska' 
> viska - 'see' 
> So catlu & zgana crossed out and everything still may be expressed; and this
> isn't the only case where a whole kit of root-words describing nearly the
> same meaning exists.
> Having an extra gismu for versions of a word seems pointless to me. 
> 
> heliodor