TECH: experimental cmavo "xo'e"

[bob@GNU.AI.MIT.EDU]

    > > The Nick/Lojbab experimental cmavo "xo'e", which eradicates a place

    This pops up for me when I want to say something universal, but
    where the natural gismu seems to want an agent: "Living things are
    made from cells [by whom?]", ...   English gets away with a
    passive here, because the passive in English does not commit you
    to the existence of an agent...

English does commit you.  A fair portion of English speakers to do
think that the passive in English commits you to the existence of an
agent.  There is a semantic ambiguity in the meaning of the word.
Some people use `is made from' to mean `is composed of' others use it
to mean `is made by an entity'.

Speakers who use the first meaning often do not realize that others
are using the latter meaning until they find that the local school
committee is telling teachers to stop teaching that bacteria can
become resistant to antibiotics.  The `is made by an entity' meaning
of the word, combined with a presumption that things have unchangable
essences, leads to an inescapable conclusion that bacteria cannot
become resistant to antibiotics.  (I am alert to this issue because
bacteria can, in fact, become resistant to antibiotics.  My father had
an operation in which antibiotics were used.  After their usual
competitors were killed off, some otherwise not very dangerous,
antibiotic-resistant bacteria reproduced rapidly and cost my father a
testicle.)

The Lojban has less semantic ambiguity than the English:

    zo'e        zbacu lo tricu       lo selci
    unspecified makes  a tree  out of cells

    lo tricu se zbasu fi lo selci
     a tree   is-made out-of cells

        zbasu       zba make                  assemble build
                        x1 makes/assembles/builds x2 out of x3

        tricu  ric      tree              tree of species...
        selci  sec      unit of (cell)    cell of...; a whole, basic subunit

Both sentences clearly imply a maker even if unspecified.  A bridi is
a relationship among all the places, even those unspecified because
unimportant or obvious.

If talking about trees, I would use the following gismu:

        vasru vas vau   contain              vessel
                        x1 contains x2; x1 is a vessel containing x2

        pagbu pag pau   part                 component-of
                        x1 is a part of x2 (where x2 is the whole)

        spisa pis   spi piece                chunk lump portion p
                        x1 is a piece/portion/lump/chunk/particle of x2


For example:
                    lo tricu cu vasru    lo selci
                     a tree     contains  cells

or better yet:
                    lo tricu se pagbu                 lo selci
                     a tree  has components <that are>  cells

As for the experimental cmavo "xo'e" that started this discussion.
What power!  To eradicate a place means to change a meaning accepted
by a community.  Often, new ideas come from thinking something
differently.  Use of "xo'e" will, I expect, be shocking to listeners.
Its use is a declaration by the speaker that the community's normal
understanding is wrong, if not in general, then in the context in
which the speaker uses "xo'e".

    Robert J. Chassell               bob@gnu.ai.mit.edu
    Rattlesnake Mountain Road        (413) 298-4725
    Stockbridge, MA 01262-0693 USA