Re: lojban relationship words....

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

Brook Conner wrote:

> Lojbab? John? Comments? What's the "correct" definition of "pendo" -
> is, acts, or both?

Both.  Lojban takes the "walks like a duck & quacks like a duck -> is a duck"
viewpoint as much as possible.  Otherwise we end up talking about someone
who is behaviorally indistinguishable from a friend (does all the right
things, all the time) but isn't one in some metaphysical (bad meaning)
sense.

Generally we only say that someone "acts like a friend" if at some
later date he/she ceases to do so:  "He acted like a friend, but he
wasn't really one [because he betrayed me, etc.]".  Lojban handles
this sort of thing with its tense contours.
 
> Hmm, this should be another thread, but what is the metaphysics of
> lojban?  Relativist (acts like)? Absolutist (is)?  "Agnostic" (both)?

Lojban mostly takes the relativist (existential) viewpoint.  But the
absolutist (essential) viewpoint can be induced with "ka", which
reifies properties: "ko'a ckaji le ka pendo" means "he has the
property of being a friend".

-- 

John Cowan	http://www.reutershealth.com		jcowan@reutershealth.com
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies / Schliess eurer Aug vor heiliger Schau
Den er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
		-- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)