preposition disposition

["la_okus" <xeubie@hotmail.com>]

Did you know that different languages use prepositions in 
different ways, for different reasons, at different times? Probably, 
but it wasn't until recently that this was made completely clear to 
me, and wasn't until even more recently that I realized it was a 
pretty good reason to favor lojban's predicate system.

I've liked lojban for a while, mostly because it feels professional 
and complete unlike any other conlang, but one thing that I've 
always wondered is what advantage predicates have over the 
usual preposition/postposition system. The prospect of using 
se/te/ve/xe to create descriptors was enticing, but what really 
convinced me was the idea that we could avoid the apparent 
preposition disagreement of natural languages. Here's what I 
mean:

English	=	French

_to_ the opera	= 	_à_ l'opéra.
_to_ France	= 	_en_ France
_to_ express my feelings	=	_pour_ exprimer mes sentiments
the train _to_ Paris	=	le train _de_ Paris
in time _to_ the music	=	en mesure _avec_ la musique

French	=	English

rêver _à_ quelque chose	=	to dream _about_ something
aller _à_ l'école 	=	to go _to_ school
être _à_ la maison 	=	to be _at_ home
être payé _à_ l'heure	=	to be paid _by_ the hour
ce n'ést pas _à_ moi de le dire 	=	it's not _for_ me to say
il l'a fait _à_ sa manière 	=	he did it _in_ his own way

A single preposition from one language can be translated by any 
number of prepositions from the other language. In addition, 
some verbs that do require a preposition in English don't take 
one in French, and vice versa. These examples are from http://
members.aol.com/sylvanz/gv16.htm, which is a page about 
esperanto. Apparently, esperanto is just as complicated, but the 
page argues that esperanto doesn't force you to use the right 
preposition for each verb because it allows you to use "je",
a 
preposition with no specific meaning. Judge as you may.

>From personal experience, I know that Japanese sometimes 
disagrees with english as well. The verb "au" means to meet, 
but the japanese don't say "I meet friends", they say
"tomodachi 
ni au", which is more like "I meet to friends".

Would you agree that lojban avoids this problem? Of course you 
would. I'm just making this thread because I'm bored, so take
it 
wherever you want. I want to attend this board more often 
because I've decided to officially join the project (however that
is 
done).

co'o mi'e okus