Re: Lojban Certification Program

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Friday 18 September 2009 13:30:05 Matt Arnold wrote:
> I think the question is whether to use the most common 500 words, or
> weight it in favor of cmavo.
>
> I still think 500 is too many. How many of you agree?

I think we need to distinguish between words that the testee needs to know the 
meaning of to answer the question right, and words that he just needs to 
recognize the form of. For instance, here's a question:

ro _____ cu smani
A. cimpanzi
B. tcimpanzi
C. tcimpazi
D. timpanzi
E. ctimpanzi

The testee does not need to know the word for "chimpanzee" beforehand. He 
does, though, need to know the meanings of "panzi" and "smani" (though he 
could probably guess the latter), in order to reject the assertion that all 
wet offspring or weather-offspring are monkeys.

I think that 500 words that the testee needs to know is too many for the first 
level. But 500 words that he needs to recognize is not. So this question 
would be fine for first level:

mi cpacu _____ jaspu le jansu
A. lo
B. pu
C. goi
D. do
E. nai

even though the testee may not know what "jaspu" and "jansu" mean.

Pierre