`by standard' place for some gismu (simple; controversial)

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@GNU.AI.MIT.EDU>]

Recently, several people have said that they think it inconsistent for
Lojban to include a `by standard' place for only some gismu.  Either
all (or all `relevant') gismu should carry the place, or none.
Certainly, you can always use {ma'i} to convey the standard.

Here are two examples of gismu with a `by standard' place and two without:

    * boy,
        x1 is a boy/lad [young male person] of age x2 immature by
        standard x3

    * heavy (weighty),
        x1 is heavy/weighty in mass/weight by standard x2
        /:/
        /=/ tilju (tij)

        /=/ nanla

    * blue,
        x1 is cyan/turquoise/greenish-blue [color adjective]
        /:/
        /=/ cicna

    * delicious,
        x1 is delicious/tasty/delightful to observer/sense x2 [person,
        or sensory activity]
        /:/ [x1 is a delicacy]
        /=/ kukte (kuk)

Does this make sense?  Weirdly enough, I think it does, but not as a
matter of consistency.  I agree that `is delicious' and `is a
boy' are both predications `by a standard'.

The reason for providing some gismu with a `by standard' place is to
bring the notion of a standard closer to the attention to the speaker
and listener.

A place is a part of a gismu.  When you speak, you yearn to fill it.
It is in your mind and in the mind of your listener, even if it is
filled by {zo'e} or is not said.  (Or at least, this is what should
happen; I have a hard time remembering the first place of a gismu, let
along the fifth.)

When you speak, you do not expect yourself to yearn so strongly to use
all of selma'o BAI in your utterance.  Not at all.  None those
possible notions will be as close to mind as a place.

Remember, a gismu is always a relationship among all its places.
Unless overtly removed using the (much deprecated) {zi'o}, a place is
part of the meaning of a gismu.  English is not quite like this.

A language should make it clear that `by standard' is always closely
relevant to at least some concepts.

As for the current set of words with `by standard' --- I am not too
inclined to make many changes.  For one, the current inconsistencies
will enable us to find out in five or ten years if my Whorfian
prediction really is true, that fluent Lojban speakers and listeners
will more often consider a standard when they speak or hear a gismu
that has a `by standard' place, than when they speak or hear a gismu
that lacks such a place.

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