[lojban] Re: Duty, promice etc...

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

Good Austinian that I am (when convenient), the most important example is the phrase "make a
promise".  While this can be taken as some sort of figure of speech, it can usefully be taken
literally, for, in the act of promising, one creates (ex nihilo) a network of obligations which
are collectively what it means to have promised.  Promises also (in my idiolect anyhow) can expire
and be fulfilled (which would not normally apply to what is promised: when I give the promised
bike, my giving a bike is not fulfilled. it merely occurs).  Also, promises can be conditional
even when what is promised is absolute (though this can usually be worked either way).  But back
to the original, breaking a promise is not breaking, in any apparent sense, the thing promised,
only the network of obligations.  Notice also "Some promises are hard to keep" where the thing
promised is not something to be kept (promises are always propositional/events -- so simple nouns
have to be taken as elliptical for propositions or events in which the referent of the noun plays
a prominent -- and predictable -- part; that's why there is {tu'a} after all).  For some othese
("breaking a promise" especially, since it was what was asked about) we can do without this notion
of promises, as noted: "He didn't do what he promised to" and the same probably applies on the
positive side. The case of making a promise can also, of course, be reduced simply to promising. 
But the question was aboutr English example, not how to treat them in Lojban.

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

> On 1/5/07, John E Clifford <clifford-j@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >  As for the English, the words "promise" and "duty" are polysemous,
> > covering the making of the promise, what is promised and some
> > abstraction (don't we have a generic abstraction operator? Yes, {su'u})
> > which combines what is promised with the whole network of conditions
> > which making a promise calls into being.  This last is probably best
> > summed up in "the sate of being obligated to do whatever by virtue of a
> > promise".
> 
> Could you give examples where the English "promise" means anything
> other than what is promised, {lo se nupre}? Can it really be used for the
> act of making a promise or for the state one is in after making a promise?
> Could you say: "He was chewing gum during his promise" or "I can't do
> that because I'm in a promise"?
> 
> Same for "duty". Except for it meaning "tax", when does it mean anything
> other than {lo se bilga}?
> 
> mu'o mi'e xorxes
> 
> 
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> 



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