Re: [lojban] lo'e and NAhEBO

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/26/2001 10:45:00 AM Central Standard Time, jcowan@reutershealth.com writes:

Well, I think this presupposition is just wrong: the typical American is
not the modal American -- on what scale, anyway?  Height?  Income?
Color of car?  Rather, lo'e merkypre is an *abstract entity* that
abstracts away everything which is not typical: thus he/she has a car,
but is neither male nor female.

Think "the average man" (though not necessarily the statistical part).  {lo'e/le'e} is slightly misleading in that it looks like it is about (an) individual(s) specifically, whereas it is about a class vaguely.  The goal involved might be better served -- in a logical language -- by an adverb, a modal cmavo, of some sort: "member of the class broda *typically* brode,"  but, following English, Loglan and Lojban have gone another way, with the occasional ontological problems that result.