Subject: [lojban] Re: [OT] God Syndrome (OR: The why of 'why')

From: Jon MacLeod <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:10:45 -0700 (PDT)

"Why does Mark feel the urge to punch a locker door when he's angry?"

Is that recursive 'z' thing. Closer to the 'why does x do y for reason z' is
"What causes Mark to feel an urge to punch a locker door because he's angry?"
although that's not exactly what I mean and can be interpreted rather too
easily as an iteration of z.

This, however is exactly the reason that the concept is so hard to explain:
the 'why' is too easily confused with the 'z' part of the sentence, in any
explanation I try to give. The problem is is that the 'why' portion can never
be a 'z': i.e. a reason for the act.

-Jon

=====
"I have a brain, I've just lost my mind." -Ian McLeod

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version 3.1
GSC>$ d+(++) s++:-- a-- C++ UL P L>+++ !E W+(++) N++ o? K- !w--- O- M@ V? PS+++ PE- Y+ PGP- t+ !5 X(+) R+ !tv-- b+++ DI+ D+ G e* h* r-(%) y+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo
http://search.yahoo.com