Subject: Re: [lojban] nelci

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 09:30:21 -0500 (EST)

sbelknap scripsit:

> I just had an interesting conversation with my son, who is five. We were 
> talking about <nelci>. Quite often, when I ask him if he likes X, he says no, 
> even though he has never tasted X. I then complain that he has never tasted X, 
> so how can he say he doesn't like it?

I suspect that this has nothing to do with language or negation. Kids actually
move from "mi na nelci" to "mi to'e nelci", and it's supposed that this is
a biological gadget to prevent them from eating stuff that their culture
doesn't eat, and may in fact be toxic. Try googling for "disgust evolution".

> I'm going to have to reread what John
> had to say about negation. As I recall, the grammar is quite lucid on this 
> topic.

Thank you. That particular chapter was written by lojbab, as a matter of fact.

-- 
John Cowan [email-masked] www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan
"It's the old, old story. Droid meets droid. Droid becomes chameleon.
Droid loses chameleon, chameleon becomes blob, droid gets blob back
again. It's a classic tale." (Kryten, Red Dwarf)