[lojban] Re: the meter is a unit of length

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

--- Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 8/3/05, Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.hn.org>
> wrote:
> > How do I say this in Lojban? The obvious
> translation, {lo mitre cu gradu
> > fi lo nilcla}, means "something measured in
> meters is a unit of length".
> 
> I would say: {lo mitre [be li pa] cu gradu
> [fe/fi] lo nilcla}.

Aside from the (probably insignificant here)
problems with using {lo} in a sentence of this
sort, it is not the case that the unit of length
is some- (or any-)thing that is a meter long.  If
RLP's suggestion is too abstract, this is too
concrete.  What we mean when we say the English
sentence is something like {le se mitre cu ni
clani}, "How many meters a thing is is its
length," more or less (we could fill in some of
the blanks for greater precision here).  This
doesn't *say* that the meter is a unit of length,
but does the work that claim is meant to do and
so implicates it.  Given Lojban's predicatizing
of measures, it is a little hard to see what can
go in for the first place of {gradu}, if that
word means anything like its English translation
(which it very well may not, of course -- and
this problem seems some indication that it does
not).
> 
> What is the difference between the x2 and x3 of
> {gradu}?

Trusting the English more than seems justified,
x2 is a scale (presumably a system of measures:
vaious units and some external specifications of
them (the old scratch on a platinum-iridium bar
or some weird multiple of the wavelength of some
color in some spectrum). It is interesting that
that is marked as {si'o}, the same as one
suggested marker to convert {mitre} into "is a
meter."  x3 is just some property (or, more
likely, the quantitative aspect of some property
-- {ni})

> I don't see any problem in using {lo mitre be
> li pa} for the generic
> meter. 
> 
See above.


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