TECH.QUERY: zo bancu cu mo zo zmadu leka smuni

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

>Date:         Fri, 18 Sep 1992 00:36:47 -0400
>From: "(Logical Language Group)" <lojbab%GREBYN.COM@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>

>There are situations where "beyond" is appropriate but where "more than"
>is at least confusing.  Nora gave me the example "The tree is beyond the
>fence".  But what is the tree more than?  You could say that the tree's
>distance from you is more than the fence's distance from you (but if the fence
>is an irregular curve, ther emay be parts of the fence that are farther
>from you than the tree is, so you have to be careful about wording).

Oh.  You mean {le tricu cu zmadu le bitmu leni darno}.  Why didn't you say
so?  Is this any less accurate than the same thing with {bancu}?  Does it
mean anything different at all?

>Nora notes that in some sense, all indications of degree are subject to this
>argument.  Why do we need "less than" since we have "more than"?  Does "barda"
>have any meaning without something that it is bigger than (JCB argued this
>and put the smaller thing in the place structure; we recognized that something
>can be recognized as large without necessarily having a particular smaller
>thing to be compared with.)

Actually, that's one of the things about JCB's Loglan that I thought made a
certain amount of sense, though not necessarily absolute sense.  Please
don't get distracted by the forgoing sentence, I'm not saying there's
anything wrong with the current method: it also makes a lot of sense.  But
back to the point.  I suppose that "less than" should obviate the need for
"more than" just as "go" and "come" are synonyms.  Add a little SE and
presto.  Hrm, actually, that's a stronger argument than I was prepared for:
why *do* we need both?  But again, that's yet another topic.  None of these
really addresses the (putative) difference between {zmadu} and {bancu}.
They appear to have precisely the same meaning, but for the x3 place, and I
(and apparently Colin) have yet to grasp how the x3 place can possibly "not
be present."

~mark