From hombre!uunet!math.ucla.edu!jimc Fri Nov 2 00:23:25 1990 Return-Path: Received: by marob.masa.com (/\=-/\ Smail3.1.18.1 #18.1) id ; Fri, 2 Nov 90 00:23 EST Received: by hombre.MASA.COM (smail2.5) id AA28624; 2 Nov 90 00:11:37 EST (Fri) Received: from cbmvax.UUCP by uunet.uu.net (5.61/1.14) with UUCP id AA22614; Thu, 1 Nov 90 18:58:46 -0500 From: uunet!math.ucla.edu!jimc Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore Jan 13 1990) id AA13970; Thu, 1 Nov 90 17:05:37 EST Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (smail2.3) id AA11947; 1 Nov 90 17:42:36 EST (Thu) Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore Jan 13 1990) id AA08753; Thu, 1 Nov 90 16:14:44 EST Received: from sunset.math.ucla.edu by uunet.uu.net (5.61/1.14) with SMTP id AA19861; Thu, 1 Nov 90 14:32:16 -0500 Return-Path: Received: from localhost by julia.math.ucla.edu via SMTP (Sendmail 5.61/1.06) id AA12870; Thu, 1 Nov 90 11:31:20 -0800 Message-Id: <9011011931.AA12870@julia.math.ucla.edu> To: gls@Think.COM (Guy Steele) Cc: lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com Subject: lujvo interpretation (was: Organic quality) In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 01 Nov 90 09:55:44 EST." <9011011455.AA00906@verdi.think.com.think.com> Date: Thu, 01 Nov 90 11:31:19 -0800 Status: RO gls@Think.COM (Guy Steele) writes: > Do you really mean to say that the anger is like an animal, > or that the anger is like the anger of an animal? The first > is more poetic, but I suspect you meant the second. The semi-original topic was what is the meaning of a compound word (lujvo). So 's question goes to the heart of the matter. I expect to say, see what human speakers do with it -- a reasonable position, except that you can't write a program for it. I find it useful to divide compounds into two sets. Lawful compounds satisfy simple rules of interpretation which allow them to be transformed to a set of phrases and arguments that mean the same thing. Typical are the combination of a directional property and a verb of motion, or a predicate and its transitive argument as a compound. "dunk" = "push-under-water" illustrates both. When I worked on Old Loglan compounds, I found that about 95% of the compounds could be interpreted lawfully. With some Procrustean manipulation I have been able to raise the fraction in -gua!spi, and to get the program to actually do the transformations (as opposed to wishful thinking for the Loglan). The rest are "true" metaphors, and they are a real can of worms. I just mark them with a special cmavo and the program ignores them on the assumption that only creatures with souls can handle metaphor. "Animal- anger" is a good example, and 's comment shows what a program is up against in interpreting them. -- jimc