Subject: Re: [lojban] Complements and adjuncts

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 18:37:24 PDT

la kolin cusku di'e

>The question is, does Lojban distinguish complements and adjuncts?
>
>At first sight, the answer is yes: by design, the defined terbri of a 
>selbri
>are complements (i.e. its meaning is incomplete without them), and any
>additional terbri attached by sumtcita must be adjuncts (optional extras
>specification, but not an essential part of the meaning).

I think sumtcita changes the relationship expressed by the selbri.
A relationship P(x,y) between two arguments is changed into a
relationship Q(x,y,z) between three arguments. The meanings
of the two relationships are of course related, but strictly
they are no longer the same one, even though they share the
same selbri word. The new relationship is more ad-hoc than the
original one, but its ad-hoc meaning is incomplete without
its arguments just as for the original relationship.

co'o mi'e xorxes

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com