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On Sun, May 05, 2002 at 12:47:38PM -0600, Rex May - Baloo wrote: > Before we get too deep into 'opposites', does anyone know what the rationale > was in changing Loglan 2-placers with the meaning x1 is greener, bigger, > smarter) than x2, to one-placers in Lojban? Because it made no sense whatsoever to have colors be comparatives? In the Loglan system, the natural way of saying "This is not blue" asserted that it was the least blue thing in the Universe. This was among a multitude of other problems. There is no reason we cannot describe colors objectively; we do not need to compare to something else. Basically, if "blu" needs a place for what it's bluer than, than "sel" needs a place for who the seller is more of a seller than. > I ask because a Ceqli > 'opposite' is mainly going to be equivalent to 'berX', or maybe 'cerX' if > it's a handier word. And if Ceqli 'cnel' means 'is faster than' No. There should be no more than four root words that are comparatives, and those should be "more", "less", "most", and "least". Not "is faster than"; that would be the compound fast+more. > When everybody gets around to explaining modals to me, they might work the > same way. Modals are described in http://www.lojban.org/publications/reference_grammar/chapter9.html, section 5. It explains them rather well, starting with "fi'o <predicate>" (which would become "ho <predicate>" in Ceqli) before going on to the condensed forms that Lojban has. > That is, > ploj = x1 uses x2 to do x3 > berploj = x2 is used by x1 to do x3 > and reverse that to > pjol so to pjol is 'tool', and maybe 'ho pjol' is the instrumental > preposition. Sorry, but can I come out and say how repulsive I find this idea? Not only does it confuse reversing the places with taking the opposite - concepts which might both apply in many cases - but it makes the reversed-places version of a word an entirely different word, which was a prevalent misfeature of Loglan before the affix system came about. -- Rob Speer