[lojban] Re: A Proposed Explanation of {gunma}

[MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 12/15/2005 4:22:08 AM Central Standard Time, John E Clifford <clifford-j@sbcglobal.net> via ecartis@digitalkingdom.org writes:


> Although I have at one time or another argued for
> most of these positions and tried to interrelate
> them, I now think that some of them are seriously
> flawed and that a couple of errors pervade the
> list above.  


I think that the first two points
> -- 


that masses differ from (pure) sets in that
> they have properties that depend upon the
> properties of the members 
and 

that masses differ
> from individuals or plurals in that they take
> collective predication rather than distributive
> (or individual individual predication).   


What do you think about the first two points?  You have only listed them, AFAICT.  Or should the double dash be "are"?

I also
> think that the fourth point -- that (some) masses
> do the work of mass nouns is correct but that
> that description of this role -- in Lojban -- is
> incorrect as given above. The third
> characteristic -- that a mass inherits all the
> properties of its members (I used to call it a
> logical sum) -- I now think rests upon some
> interlocking errors.

stevo