Re: verbs of eating

Elyse M. Grasso scripsit:

> I've been told that 'taberu' and 'kuu' divide up the semantic space
> differently than the German words do ('essen' and 'fressen'?), though I'm not
> clear on how either division works.
In Standard German, "fressen" is applied to eating by animals; by metaphorical
shift, it can also refer to eating by people in animal fashion, English
"pigging (out)."

In Pennsylvania German, however, "fressen" has taken over for all purposes,
which can lead to some degree of comedy when PG and StdG speakers interact.

> How do people's conlangs handle the semantic space for eating?
In Lojban, there is a two-place verb "eat" (A eats B) and a three-place
"drink" (A drinks B from container/source C).  As always in Lojban,
arguments may be omitted if they are obvious to the interlocutors.

While it's in another thread, I'll also mention that "sell" is a
four-place verb: A sells B to C at price D.  This also serves for "buy"
(C buys B from A at price D), "is the price of" (D is the price from A
of B for C), and "cost" (vb) (B costs (from A for B) C), with appropriate
particles or their equivalent prefixes.

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