In English, there are copular propositions (e.g., “swans are white”), copular-like propositions (e.g., “swans have wings”), and non-copular propositions (e.g., “drugs kill,” “drugs kill people”). What does it mean for swans to be white? If you see a swan, then you’ll see something white: the swan. And what does it mean for drugs to kill? If you see a drug, then you’ll see something that kills: the drug.
One of my goals for the artificial language is to integrate the copular, copular-like, and non-copular propositions. English uses “to be” for the copular, “to have” for the copular-like, and nothing for the non-copular: “Swans are white,” “swans have wings,” and “drugs kill.” In the artificial language, I’ll avoid that asymmetry. I’ll mark the subject, the predicate, and the kind of relationship between the subject and the predicate: the “to be” relationship, which is spatial whole-whole, temporal whole-whole, the “to have” relationship, which is spatial whole-part, temporal whole-whole, and the nothing relationship, which is the spatial whole-whole, temporal whole-part relationship. (Propositions take a subject a put it together with a predicate—that’s what propositions are. The questions are what the subject is, what the predicate is, and what the relationship is between the subject and the predicate.)
“Swans are white” means that if you see a swan, then you’ll see something white: the swan. And “white things are swans” means the opposite: that if you see a white thing, then you’ll see something that’s a swan: the white thing. The former proposition is false but not absurd, and the latter proposition is false and absurd.
English is asymmetrical:
- “Swans are white,” “white things are swans”
- “Swans have wings,” “things that have wings are swans”
- “Drugs kill,” “things that kill are drugs”
- “Drugs kill people,” “things that kill people are drugs”
In the artificial language, I’ll avoid that asymmetry. I’ll do something like:
- “Swans are white,” “whites are swan”
- “Swans have wings,” “wings have swans”
- “Drugs kill,” “kills drug”
- “Drugs kill people,” “kills people drug”