clani

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>>>> I know that the word "long" is sometimes used in an objective sense
>>>>in English, as in "how long is this object?", but I don't think that the
>>>>Lojban word {clani} can be used to translate the objective sense
>>>>of English "long". It only has its subjective sense.
>>>>
>>>>co'o mi'e xorxes

You of course are insisting on talking about le ka clani, and not le ni clani.
ni abstractions at least suggestr the possibility of being objectively
measureable.  And clani, which has a measurement standard in x3 is about as
object as they come, barring relativistic effects.

>>>>I'm not sure I'm understanding what you mean. Could you
>>>>translate into Lojban? I suppose you are not saying that:
>>>>
>>>>        ro mitre cu ckaji le ka clani
>>>>        Every measurable object has the property of being long.
>>>>
>>>>That, to me, is the same as saying:
>>>>
>>>>        ro mitre cu clani
>>>>        Every measurable object is long.
>>>>
>>>>>A short object will have a small amount of
>>>>>longness, and sure enough this corresponds to length.

da'a mitre cu ckaji le ka clani fi da
Every measureable object (except the shortest) has the property of being
long with respect to some standard.

In the case of lo mitre, we have a fairly objectove standard by whioch we can
measure le ni mitre - the degree of longness.  Now for an object that is
short, the degree of longness will be small.  Also le jei clani will not
exactly correspond to le ni clani since an object can have measureable
lengthg and still not be significantly long with respect to the standard, and
an object that is long(er) compared to the standard has a length greater than

"1".

It was concepts like "length" that "ni" was invented to express.
I think it works with the current place structure.  It did not with
JCB's original place structure for "clani" (which was x1 is longer than x2)

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
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