Re: le/lo

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

>That's up to you, but should not be a choice made by the speech
>community in general. Figurative speech is ubiquitous in even
>the most mundane discourse. Furthermore, many people would
>argue that there is no real difference between figurative and
>literal: some would reject the difference altogether, seeing
>the difference is a matter of degree, with no boundary between
>them, while others (including me) would say that the distinction
>exists only under a certain ontology (which coexists with
>alternative ontologies).

Suffice it to say that I will consider myself to take every statement you
say literally unless it is marked in some way as figurative, with either
some sign of metonymy or the "figurative" marker.

YOu are correctthat there are some fuzzy edges on literality.  If I say
"mi viska lo blanu zdani", then I am lcaiming that what I see is really
a blue house.  Now, barring the inherent fuzziness of tanru, there is
still the question of what it means for something to be "blanu".  Thus
if instead I say "mi viska lo blanu" there is a question as to whether
this is true if the house is a (red) brick house with all the trim
and woodwork painted blue.

But if I call a snowflake "lo xrula" because in some ways a snowflake may
be taken to resemble a flower, such a figurative usage won't fly in Lojban
(nor will it vofli zo'o).  Now obviosuly ontology can become a factor.
Someone hallucinating might say truthfully on seeing a snowflake that he is
seeing "lo xrula" but this is a matter of the ontologyt involved in "seeing"
and not in what constitutes
"lo xrula".

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                        703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab
    or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/";
    Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.