Re: Adjectives

[Pycyn <Pycyn@AOL.COM>]

Well, page 13 may be a little optimistic: sutra tavla cutci might mean a fast
talking shoe, but, given present style and technology, it probably doesn't.
It does mean a fast talker kind of shoe and the best guess about what that
would be (how do shoes get classified as fast talkers?) is in terms of the
wearer (fast runner might be harder to be confident about).  Remember, only
the syntax is unambiguous in Lojban -- we know what modifies what -- but not
the semantics.  (Faeces, this is going to start another round of notes! and me
over 2000 behind).  In particular, what the expansion of the modifier relation
is is left unmarked -- and both subclass, in the straightforward way we
Englisher associate with adjectives (red apple, e.g.), and the turn-around
from the second (or third or ....) place are fairly common versions (the stock
case is "lion hunter" ).  There are a number (I was going to say slu but I get
into too many fights about how to spell it) of other common patterns and quite
a few that have only occurred once or twice in the going on forty years of
this project but were quite legit when they appeared.

ti tavla cutci mi would (for me right now) most likely mean the shoes I wear
when talking (as opposed to my running shoes or my mountain climbing shoes,
etc.) and so, with the mi in place to cut off (for the most part) second-
place-raising (it could mean shoes worn by me when I am (or who am) a fast
talker), I would read the original as the shoes I wear when/for talking fast.

Sorry, but in Lojban nothing is gibberish, however odd -- even unintelligible
-- it may seem.  I suspect that ti tavla sutra cutci is (easiest case) a shoe
for moving at talking speed (moderate walk in my case).  And many other
possibilities might strike you or me in context.  What the person actually
meant by it would depend on the context (including the speaker's head content)
and might need an expansion to become clear to the hearers (as in English
pretty often).

For a fast shoe worn by a talker, you would need the appropriate conjunctive
form between sutra and tavla (some version of [e] depending on what else
happens with this predicate complex) and even then I am not sure you can get
away with it, since the modification relations are different semantically.
But you probably can (stand by for another plop of messages).
>|83 pc