Re: A question and introduction

From: "Andy Canivet" <cathode_ray00@...>
> >the case.  "I see a non-cat" is a scalar negation: it means that you see
> >something that belongs on the same scale with cats, but at a different
> >point.  (It isn't obvious what this scale is; "I see a non-white object"
> >makes it fairly clear that it is *some* color or other, just not white.)
>
> Interesting - I don't know much about Lojban, but it sounds as if the
> "scalarity" of the negation really depends on context.  Although the most
> obvious conclusion from "I see a non-cat" is that I see something which is
> not a cat but which is near enough to a cat for me to describe it with
> reference to "cat" and not some other object <gasp>. However, couldn't my
> toaster, or really any extant object other than a cat be a non-cat?
[I don't know Lojban either but] you could reference things on a scale of
catness to not-quite-catness--explaining to a child: that's not a cat, it looks
like a cat but it's just a [possum, chihuahua, statue of a cat].

Or, if I was rummaging through a box of things looking for my little cat statue,
I being me would probably end up calling everything I pulled out (toasters
included) "non-cat" until it actually *was*.



    *Muke!
--
http://www.frath.net/