Re: TECH: grammar updates

[Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>]

The Seraphim surely rejoiced when John Cowan spoke thus:
}la kolin. cusku di'e
}> This is dangerous, because it lets malglico in by the back door. 'zbasu' has
}> a maker in its tergismu for good reason. If you don't happen to believe that
}> living things have a zbasu in their history, then it is not appropriate to
}> use 'zbasu'. The argument that 'ne'e zbasu' is a different selbri reeks of
}> sophistry, and looks to me like a way of avoiding thinking about what you
}> really mean.
Though Colin is right in saying one shouldn't use {zbasu}, it could be
argued that we're not using {zbasu} here at all, but rather a selbri
related to {zbasu}, but minus its maker place. This all hinges on to
what extent a selbri is defined solely by its places: {se zbasu be ne'e},
in such a light, needs have little to do with {zbasu} proper.

It's a mess, I know. I mean, if a battery is a {sorcu}, but needs no
location, then it could be argued it is not a {sorcu} at all, since it
doesn't have a {ve sorcu}. But then what it is? And if it is something
different, why doesn't it have its own gismu? And if we admit that not
all concepts can be expressed with gismu and cmavo, and that some lujvo
(like that of battery) can have their place structure arise ex nihilo...
well, I'd worry. It may not be a disaster, but I think we've all been
assuming the Gismu Deep Structure Hypothesis, we've all been assuming
all lujvo can be paraphrased as tanru can be paraphrased (ta'unai) as
gismu deep strcutures; an admission that they can't would greatly change
our attitudes to lujvo making.

}BTW, I just noticed that an alternative to {ne'e} for this use would be {zi'a},
}{zi'i}, {zi'o}, or {zi'u}, all recently freed with the abolition of ziheks.
}These would have the advantage of sharing an initial letter with {zo'e} and
}{zu'i}.  Comments?

Looks OK to me. To avoid confusability, {zi'a} or {zi'o}.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nick S. Nicholas,                      "Rode like foam on the river of pity
CogSci & CompSci student,               Turned its tide to strength
University of Melbourne, Australia.     Healed the hole that ripped in living"
nsn@{munagin.ee|mundil.cs}.mu.oz.au           - Suzanne Vega, Book Of Dreams
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