Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Three (4) more questions

From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 08:34:13 -0400

At 04:39 PM 04/16/2001 -0400, [email-masked] wrote:
>In a message dated 4/16/2001 9:23:45 AM Central Daylight Time,
>[email-masked] writes:
><Why the hell does <brivla> mean what it means? How do the two terms
>connect, and why would it mean only one word? What's the real
>difference between a brivla and a selbri, then? I mean, <nu prenu kei>
>is lo valsi, isn't it?>
>
>Skipping a long story of sloppy communication and mutual misunderstandings
>and misapplied technical terms (in short, the history of Loglan/Lojban
>technical terminology), this is a hard one to answer -- and the tale is too
>long for even a face-to-face. And it is probably too late to try to do it
>all over again right, but a brief attempt may be ok. {bridi} means
>"predication," a predicate-centered construction that can be asserted,
>questioned, applied as a description and so on. At the center of a
>predication is, obviously, a predicate, which may be expressed in one or
>several words and with a variety of auxiliary devices. A one-word predicate
>is a brivla (actually, as the list notes, a selbrivla) and it keeps that
>status even when it is combined into a more complex predicate in a
>predication.

Furthermore, a brivla standing alone constitutes a valid bridi, so it works 
in the sense of "bridi-in-one-word" as well as with your longer explanation.

> The predicate of a predication is (automatically) a selbri,
>whatever it is made up of -- one word, several in an unmarked structure, or
>in a structure of whatever complexity. And no, {nu prenu kei} is not a valsi
>but a valsi porsi (porsi lo valsi). It is a potential selbri, though not a
>functional one as given, but it is not a brivla, since not a valsi.

On the other hand, it does constitute "lo valsi" if one allows for the fact 
that unmarked-number is not necessarily singular. Still, most people tend 
to think in terms of singular usages.

lojbab
--
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org