Subject: Re: [lojban] {kai'i}

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 23:04:48 -0400 (EDT)

And Rosta scripsit:

> I have a dim sense that you're quoting me here... I don't actually
> remember having described your contempt as horribly logical positivist,

Such was the case, though.

> but certainly that exactly captures my sentiment! I find contempt for
> the semantics-pragmatics distinction as incomprehensible [...]

A sentiment I return with interest. Semantics, it seems to me, is
a theory about what statements *should* mean, but don't.
(Except in Lojban.)

> > ("the yeomen, who were always polishing up their brightly colored yeos
> > for some idiotic festival or other" -- _Bored of the Rings_)
> 
> Are there some people blessed with the gift of discerning the
> pertinence of your quotations, as opposed to merely appreciating their
> quirky charm?

Ouch. My mother told me, back when I was a yoot, to try to make my jokes
more relevant to the situation, but somehow I still seem to manage it
very badly...

In this case it was a mere verbal association between
"refurbishing" and "polishing up". Anyhow, I thought you would like the
brightly colored yeos.

> I do remember the history. But when Xod said that ka is redundant, and
> you replied that redundancy is Good Thing, a better response would
> have been that Xod is right and that of course there are redundancies,
> given the gradual way the language was made and the way we are still
> in the process of coming to understand it.

Indeed, it *is* a better response, and I'm glad you've given it.

(BTW, your mail is still coming from [email-masked], though
you say that address is dead.)

-- 
John Cowan [email-masked]
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
--Douglas Hofstadter