WikiDiscuss

On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 09:35:41PM -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> > I don't know when I'd want to talk about Mr. Cat, and I don't think
> > I'd want to accidentally be talking about him. I imagine that the
> > concept will be similarly difficult to grasp for most learners of the
> > language.
>
> Is there a difference between "ravens are tricksters" and "Raven is a
> trickster"? Unless one is independetly worshiping Raven (in which case
> it's "la raven" anyways), I don't see a difference.

The words "Mr. Raven" simply don't explain anything to me. If "Mr. Raven"
means "an unspecified general bunch of ravens", then the definition
handles that case just fine without Mr. Raven needing to be mentioned.

"Mr. Raven" is an English translation of a concept that comes from some
other natlang, right? It's just not useful in talking about Lojban in
English, because your typical English reader will have no idea what it
means. Also, it takes a good concept and makes it sound silly.

Or is there some reason that it's essential that this unspecified general
bunch of ravens is considered as a single entity and given a name?
--
Rob Speer