[lojban-beginners] Re: precise definition of cmene

[Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 01:13 PM 2/25/04 -0500, you wrote:
> Ever since Melissa asked, I've been wondering how you could tell the 
> difference between a person named Mutt and something that is classified as 
> a mutt (mixre gerku).  Does this rely purely on context?

A person named "mutt" might be la myt.
This relies on the common recognition between speaker and listener of the 
basis of naming, which is entirely contextual.

Something classified as a member of a class named "mutt" might be "lai myt"

something classified a mixre gerku would be "lo mixre gerku".  This is NOT 
a name, but rather a description, and requires that the thing actually be a 
dog that is in some way considered "mixture"

> Would it be appropriate to always use lai (as LeChevalier pionts out) in 
> reference to a class or group label?  To me, I wonder if la 
> serinus.serinus.kanarias is the last canary or is really renaissance 
> painting named after the bird.

It could be either.  Names are conventions, and have no semantic 
importance.  I can call my nonexistent dog la serinus.serinus.kanarias, or 
I could even adopt it as my own nickname.  Lojban supports human perversity 
in naming %^)

Note that I can also use a description as a name.  If preceded by a name 
descriptor (la), it becomes similarly semantically null.  "la barda cipni" 
is a character in the Muppets which cannot be described as "lo barda cipni" 
(that character could be described as "le barda cipni" which says that the 
description is meaningful, but not necessarily true.  But whereas some 
person might acquire a nickname and be called "la barda cipni" by friends, 
it would be perverse to describe that person as "le barda cipni".

> Has this been covered in the Wiki?  I'm not very good at searching for 
> stuff like this.

The wiki is not a tutorial.

Chapter 6 of The Complete Lojban Language gives a pretty through 
description of Lojban sumti forms

http://www.lojban.org/publications/reference_grammar/chapter6.html

Chapters 1 and 2 of Nick and Robin's introductory lessons probably cover 
the material pretty well.

http://ptolemy.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/lojbanbrochure/lessons/book1.html

lojbab

--
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