[lojban] Re: semantic primes can define anything

["Jorge Llambías" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On 3/24/06, MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com <MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com> wrote:
> And yet this is precisely Wierzbicka's claim:  That any and all nonprime
> words can be defined completely in terms of the semantic primes that she and
> her group are finding and testing.

Yes, a very strong claim. Unfortunately, only a few of their
definitions seem to be available online (at least I haven't managed
to find more than a few scattered examples), so it's hard to judge
how successful they've been so far.

> A second claim (for which they are seeking counterexamples) is that all
> natural languages have the primes.

Well, Lojban doesn't seem to have a word for FEEL which
covers both sensations and emotions, but then it is not a
natural language, and the word could always be introduced
as a lujvo or fu'ivla. :)

mu'o mi'e xorxes


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