Re: [lojban] Random lojban questions/annoyances.

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/24/2001 5:45:04 AM Central Standard Time,
lojbab@lojban.org writes:

>So we have to allow for non-female sisters too? Doesn't mensi
>always require some form of fetsi?

Probably, but it might be arguable.

If I had a brother who underwent a sex-change operation, would he be my
sister or my brother?  Genetically he is still male, but genitallyhe is
female.

Now you can say this is "some form of fetsi"  But the djuno case in theory
could be some kind of jetnu, since you CAN add some kind of observer place
to jetnu.

But in any case I am wary about asserting absolute definitions, especially
by prescription.

, we can't say that there will
never be someone who can think of a use for mensi that does not involve
fetsi  (imagine when we meet an alien species which might be
asexual.  Someone's father legally adopts a child of this species into the
family.  Would it be wrong to call that new family member "mensi"?

I seem to recall that we went round on this a while ago with respect toone
or two types of hermaphrodites as well as transgendered and transexual
people.  I don't remember what all came of that discussion, but itis
reasonable to assume that
we distinguished at least
1) genotype (is yo is or is you ain't a Y-by?, maybe some stuff about steroid
responses)
2) phenotype (+ natural/artificial, permanent or prosthetic)
3) stereotype  (clothes, behavior, occupation)
4) {gletu}-preference
All of that is, of course, for humans and related critters.  I don't think we
got into other possibilities, but, since, for the critters we dealt with,
female is the default in both geno and pheno, perhaps we could let {fetsi}
expand in that way to the new realms (assuming that, whatever, the structure
of the genetic code and polymorphism for the Its, the notion of a default
makes sense, as it surely does for asexuals).  As for {mensi} we already have
enough non-gender -(or is it -sex) -specific uses of "sister" in English to
start a a range of usage (mainly tied up with 4, admittedly).  
But none of that seems to me to affect "know" nor {djuno} in any meaningful
way.