Re: Esperanto and Interlingua

On 11 Mar 2007 13:32:08 -0700, "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mar 11, 3:54 pm, Padraic Brown <elemti...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 11 Mar 2007 11:18:27 -0700, "Peter T. Daniels"

<gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 11, 1:52 pm, Prai Jei <pvstowns...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Joachim Pense (or somebody else of the same name) wrote

guessing:
mal = bad
san = health
ulejo - that could indeed be a sequence of suffixes.

mal- negative prefix, no connotations of badness or evil

How can "negative" _not_ have "connotations of badness or evil"? This
is supposed to be a language used by humans.

Mal- is simply a prefix that forms an antonym of the root it precedes.
No moral wossname there at all, no question of good or bad or wrong or
right.

I'm sure you knew this already, or could have looked it up with ease.

Then "negative" was an inapt characterization.

Not at all. It seems to works fine for physicists. Just let go the
moral connotation and all will be well!

I refer you to Orwell's Doublespeak.

I refer you to any elementary chemistry or physics text.

Or perhaps to Bolinger's *Language as a Loaded Weapon*.

Negatives have "negative" connotations. That's why that's the label
for such connotations.

I don't think that's the case here. There's nothing in "malsano" that
indicates "badness or evil" -- that is, no moral connotation at all.
Look into "negative spin", "negative camber", "negative lift",
"negative cashflow" et sim for some of the many ways "negative" can be
used in nonmoral contexts.

Padraic

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