[lojban] Re: The x1 of fenki

[John E Clifford <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

--- Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/18/05, Robin Lee Powell
> <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> wrote:
> > This is really bizarre to me, because to me
> only *people* are crazy.
> > 
> > There are actions that only a crazy person
> would take, but it's the
> > preson that's crazy, not the actions.
> 
> In English, "crazy" can be used both for people
> or for actions.
> "He's crazy" and "that's crazy" are both
> perfectly idiomatic
> as far as I can tell. 
> 
> In Lojban, according to the gi'uste, there are
> certain gismu 
> places that are reserved for events and from
> which people or
> objects are explicitly excluded. It is very
> hard to guess which
> places are like that, and which will happily
> take both people
> and events. For example the x1 of {xajmi}
> explicitly allows 
> both people and events. I have never quite
> understood the 
> rationale behind the distinction.

It does not seem to make much sense, since people
are funny much in the same way they are crazy:
what they say or do, and events are crazy in much
the same way they are funny (note we even use
"funny" as a euphemism for "crazy").  But even if
we could come up with a rationale in this case,
another case would come along equally mysterious.
 Languages get words in spite of someone's
rational scheme, not because of it.