Re: lojban relationship words....

[Robin Turner <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

John Cowan 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".


But why make this explicit in the entry for {pendo} and not for
{pulji}?  More to the point, why then isn't {prami} defined as 

x1 _acts as though_ they love/feel strong affectionate devotion
towards x2 

?

co'o mi'e robin.