[lojban-beginners] Re: Quick Reference Guide for language words

["Joel Shellman" <jshellman@gmail.com>]

On 10/29/07, Robert LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org> wrote:
> > Given the restriction of no unrelated meanings, the metaphoric
> > intellectual giant I would expect is impossible in lojban--or perhaps
> > what I mean is that it would not be metaphoric. Would you say
> > "intellectual man-of-great-physical-size"? You might, but it would not
> > mean what we generally mean in English by intellectual giant. Perhaps
> > I'm missing something?
>
> Is a "giant" necessarily of "great physical size".  In English it is
> not, as evidenced by ... "intellectual giant".

My understanding is English allows multiple unrelated definitions,
lojban does not. I would suggest that the "metaphoric" nature of
intellectual giant is only because in English, giant can mean several
different things. I would expect the definitions for "a being with
human form but superhuman size, strength, etc." and "greater or more
eminent than others" are sufficiently unrelated as to not be allowed
to be attributed to the same word in lojban. Ah... but that second
definition is an adjective, not a noun. Given the usage here, it might
be required to be considered metaphorical because of the usage in
English. Moving over to lojban, though... I'm still not sure about
this because these are two somewhat unrelated meanings and so would
seem that it might be not allowed.