Re: lojban relationship words....

["Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 02:26 PM 11/3/99 +0200, Robin Turner wrote:
> > 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

My intent in using the words "acts as a friend to" was not intended to 
evoke a weak form of "seems like a friend but might not really be one".  I 
was thinking about how friendship is sometimes defined in terms of the 
mutually-close relationship between two individuals, but that it also 
refers to acts of friendship: helping out because of sincere concern for 
another.  The latter is used (perhaps it is metaphorically) for charitable 
and environmental causes (e.g. "Friends of the Earth"), where presumably 
one is a "friend" because of ones' acts indicating friendly concern.

As a general rules "acts as though" cannot be used for the weak expression 
because whatever it means, it is not merely limited to agentive places.  So 
you would need some phrasing like

x1 acts as though they love/feel strong affectionate devotion, apparently 
towards x2.

I will leave the wishy-washy version of the place structure of "klama" as 
an exercise in masochism.

I myself take the interpretation suggested by John Cowan, with rather more 
emphasis on the tie between a predicate "broda" and "ckaji le ka broda", 
with the addition that *each* place of a predicate must be "ckaji le ka 
broda" with all places filled in on broda.

lojbab
----
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