gismu != primitives: Difference between revisions

From Lojban
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
Line 1: Line 1:
This represents one of the classic Lojban fallacies, and even [[JCB|James Cooke Brown]] believed it for a time.
This represents one of the classic Lojban fallacies, and even [[JCB|James Cooke Brown]] believed it for a time.


There is nothing inherently "primitive" about most of the [[gismu]], nor are they intended to be so.  As an obvious example, '''mamta''' means ''female parent'', and could have been represented as '''ninmu je rirni'''.  But it isn't, because it is a sufficiently high-frequency concept that assigning a [[gismu|gismu]] for it made sense even in the [[elder da|Elder Days]].
There is nothing inherently "primitive" about most of the [[gismu]], nor are they intended to be so.  As an obvious example, '''mamta''' means ''female parent'', and could have been represented as '''ninmu je rirni'''.  But it isn't, because it is a sufficiently high-frequency concept that assigning a [[gismu|gismu]] for it made sense even in the [[Elder Days]].

Latest revision as of 06:25, 6 September 2015

This represents one of the classic Lojban fallacies, and even James Cooke Brown believed it for a time.

There is nothing inherently "primitive" about most of the gismu, nor are they intended to be so. As an obvious example, mamta means female parent, and could have been represented as ninmu je rirni. But it isn't, because it is a sufficiently high-frequency concept that assigning a gismu for it made sense even in the Elder Days.