Re: TECH: bramau booboo

[John Cowan <snark!cowan@GVLS1.VFL.PARAMAX.COM>]

la nitcion. cusku di'e

> But the standard of bigness is irrelevant, isn't it. An elephant is big
 compared
> to humans, and small compared to planets, but this has nothing to to with
> the fact that it is bigger than a rhino, which it is whether you think of
> planets or mice as a norm.

Yes, and this is why JCB banned "big" from his version of the language in
favor of "bigger" as a gismu (the keyword for "groda" is still "big", but
the place structure is "X is bigger than Y by Z", presumably "by amount Z".)

We, the Lojbanists, rejected that reasoning, subsituting "x1 is big ...
by standard x3" to provide a reference point.  But when we move from
"the vague positive" to "the precise comparative" (Quine, >Quiddities<,
s.v. "Knowledge"), we can drop the standard place.

--
John Cowan      cowan@snark.thyrsus.com         ...!uunet!lock60!snark!cowan
                        e'osai ko sarji la lojban.