At 10:09 AM 2/24/04 +0000, Zefram wrote:
melissa@fastanimals.com wrote: >"la serinus.serinus.kanarias."? It takes the "la" article, and is formed >like a name. But in what way does this not stand for a class of things? "la serinus.serinus.kanarias." refers to a species. A species is an individual entity, with its own name. >la dinas. gerku la mutt "la mut." (remember, cmene are formed phonetically) would not refer to any individual entity, and so is not a valid usage.
You are not obliged to abide by standard nomenclature in Lojban. If you want to define a species or breed of dog and call it "la myt." (my pronunciation), so long as the listener can identify the breed from your name, that is fine.
Although thinking about it, I would likely use the mass name "lai" for a species or breed. I would expect that biologists consider Linnean species names are equally the labels for the individuals in the species, as that of the species
-- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, Founder, The Logical Language Group (Opinions are my own; I do not speak for the organization.) Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org