On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:34 AM, John E Clifford
<kali9putra@hidden.email> wrote:
Because a black horse is not just black and a horse (we won't go the whole Kung Sun Lung bit here) any more than a small star is both small and a star.
Why wouldn't the simple colors be handled as the intersective adjectives that they seem to be?
Because they are as relative to subject as other adjectives: compare a green house to green grass as to greenness. Color words also don't have conditions attached in Lojban (you could add them in Xorban, of course).
As far as nonintersectives like "small", they can be generally handled intersectively as well, because it's usually obvious what standard with respect to which something is said to be small. e.g.:
la tfa je lnta trca.
"That's a small (lit: unmassive) star."
... obviously means that's the star has a small mass by the standard of stars, not by the standard of cats or something. If you wish to be pedantic,
la tfa je li trci lntaki trca.
"That's starwise a small star."
"That's a star small as far as stars go."
... in which the speaker is emphasizing that the star is unmassive only by star standards, not by our standards. If you compare apples and oranges, then the x2 of linto becomes necessary:
la je tfa mlta li grki tljaki.
"That cat is heavy by dog standards."
... which probably means that someone should put the cat on a diet. All of this stuff comes from Lojban, which seems to me a bit that got done right.
Nice joke, but without the limitors the results is illogical. If it is both small and a star, then it is small, which it isn't. If you save that by adding the condition, then the whole is redundant, so prolix and against another goal of the reconstruction. Incidentally, black horses (or at least black cats) aren't even black (it's a hard color to get in living creatures, who tend to use melanin which -- despite its name -- is a brown pigment)
Also, there are increasing complicated cases, where conjunction just won't work: pretty little girls school, to take a classic. Or cannibal fish. At some point you have to allow modifier-modified pairs and the easiest place to start is at
the beginning.
--
co ma'a mke
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