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Re: [lojban] {ciftoldi}. caterpillar is not a cifnu
On 5/29/2015 2:15 PM, Gleki Arxokuna wrote:
okay, but {lo cifnu} doesn't mean "baby". It denotes a "helpless" baby.
No. It means baby. The "helpless" was my biologically-naive perception
that the semantic difference between a "baby" and a "child" is relative
helplessness. I can't tell you at what age/stage a "baby" ceases to be
a baby and becomes a "child" other than that helplessness of having to
have someone change their diapers. (And I wouldn't be surprised if
different languages divide up human development differently than English
does)
That other animals don't wear diapers makes the analogy imperfect for
non-humans. But Lojban words aren't really intended to solve the human
tendency to metaphorize concepts that don't strictly fit. And tanru are
most definitely include metaphors (as do gismu in some cases).
Biological reality isn't especially relevant, unless Lojban is to be
limited only to those who know biology in sufficient depth. And by the
time we have some non-human species speaking Lojban, no doubt the
extraterrestrial biology will overturn most of our biological concepts,
so claiming that Lojban is malremna doesn't convince me.
le jbocifnu pe la camgusmis almost certainly wouldn't understand the
biological distinctions being argued. I thus agree with Michael. If the
word "helpless" isn't optimal, find some other wording. The gismu
places structures were limited by character count, so I often used a
single word that wasn't necessarily a precise definition.
lojbab
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