Re: [lojban] Moss and lichen

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

At 01:43 PM 10/30/01 -0500, pycyn@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 10/29/2001 8:29:09 PM Central Standard Time, 
> phma@oltronics.net writes:
> > There is a gismu {clika} which is glossed as moss or lichen. Which is it? 
> > The
> > two are completely different and are not even in the same kingdom. voc gives
>
> I suppose it is hopeless at this point to remind you that Lojban is an 
> ordinary, not a scientific, language at its base, so it tends to groups 
> things as ordinary people do, not as scientists do: molds (except 
> mushrooms, toadstools, and yeast), lichens, and moss (and maybe even a few 
> ferns) all go into the same pot in folk speech.

Indeed, the bottom line is that clika is that green stuff growing on a rock 
or tree.  Use tanru or lujvo to make serious distinctions; everyday people 
are not going to use taxonomic classifications, because everyday people 
don't know them.  If they see green stuff on a rock, they will say "clika" 
regardless of what kingdom or phyla that the scientists would classify it 
as.  Just as they will tend to call a dolphin le finpe even if scientists 
call it lo mabru.  This problem also affects the various real-world 
referents of latna.  Presumably they all got the name "lotus" even though 
they were unrelated taxonomically because people for some reason associated 
them with lo si'o lijda spati or lo ranmi spati poi se cmene la'o gy. lotus. gy

lojbab
--
lojbab                                             lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                    703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:                 http://www.lojban.org