[YG Conlang Archives] > [jboske group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
xod: > On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, John Cowan wrote: > > > Invent Yourself scripsit: > > > > > If counting is not desired, lo is just as good, signifying a quantity of > > > one piece. Do you want a gadri to mark that counting isn't necessary? I > > > don't see that distinction as worth marking, not when we have a chance to > > > solidify the meaning of the mass-gadri, on the way to resolving lo'e. This > > > is a fairly important issue, and it seems that non-countability is a > > > relatively minor trait that either never matters, or can be sent to the > > > selbri in those rare cases that it does matter > > > > "Mass" entails non-countability, and serves as a convenient marker for it > > It depends on what you mean by "mass". In an effort to clarify the > terminology, we pretty much agree to use "mass" to refer to the > mass-gadri, and to use "collective" and "substance" for the two distinct > concepts which have been mistakenly blurred together as the meaning of the > mass-gadri > > Please see http://www.thestonecutters.net/xod/lojban/jboske.html John means "substance" in the message you are replying to. But he also does not (yet) accept the impropriety of conflating "substance" and "collective". It is good that you are trying to police our terminology and trying to keep distinct notions terminologically distinct. A good 75% or more of most disagreements on any topic turn out to be merely terminological when you examine them closely. --And.