Return-Path: Message-Id: Date: Sun, 24 Mar 91 04:32 EST From: lojbab (Bob LeChevalier) To: lojban-list Subject: Happy? Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Sun Mar 24 04:33:27 1991 X-From-Space-Address: lojbab >In fact, to bring in a parethesis, there is a massive history to the >verb to be used corresponding to Happy. It alludes, of course, to the >Sermon On The Mount. Now here are some distinct types of happiness: > >English Esperanto Greek (Modern) >------------------------------------------------------ >Fortunate Felicxa Eutuxhs, Eutuxismenos >Pleased (Kontenta) Euxaristhmenos >Happy Gaja Xaroumenos >Joyful Gxoja (can't think of one) >Blissful (Sengxena) Makarios (cf. Latin Beatus) > >The Esp has 'Fortunate' because this makes the link between cause of >happiness and the happiness explicit: Gxojas tiuj, kiuj... would sound >like their joy was incidental to their seeing God. It would be even >worse with Gajas tiuj, kiuj... which reads somewhat like "Those who have >seen God are running around smiling". > >But the original Greek had Makarioi, and the Latin translation has >Beati. Admittedly some semantics would have been influenced by the >Church's use of the term; but Oi Makarioi Nhsoi, the Isles of Bliss, the >late-pagan-Greek equivalent of heaven, predates Christian theology (I >think). What this implies to me is that Christ meant something along >the lines of 'They will have no worries, no disquiet', not 'they will >run around smiling' (Happy) or 'they will run around hurrahing' (Joyful) >or 'they will say "ain't we lucky"' (Fortunate, Pleased). > >Does le lojban [Bob: should be 'la', its a name] distinguish between >these happinesses (it doesn't have to, and I've heard SapirWhorfish >mumbles against such distinctions), and which would it have picked here? Nick gives me a reason to show off what I LOVE to do with Lojban. In fact, I proposed a massive effort like the following way back in the first issue of JL, under the name 'complexing'. In a sense, doing this is what made ME interested in Loglan enough to tackle the dictionary project (which is how I got started). (I love playing with words and their corresaponding ideas, to see how they interact.) Jeanne C. wanted a discussion of love, but it looks like someone decided happiness was more important. This is the type of posting needed to tackle such things as the multiple Lojban words for love. But for now, let's be happy (do happy?). Then I'll leave it to the list to find out how to Love Lojbanically. First you wander through the gismu list pulling out words related to the concept. I didn't pull the following out in order, but about 15 minutes gave me all of them. You can probably find more worth using your own lists. As you will see, don't be picky - let your mind play word association games. Some key source words (I'll use the published gismu list; some places of some of these are probably going to change, but not to significantly affect this exercise - feel free to suggest changes, in fact): gleki x is happy about y gle gei pluka x pleases y puk pu'a se pluka x is pleased by y selpu'a salci x celebrates y sal xalbo x is levity/non-serious about y - zdile x is amusing to y zil zdi se zdile x is amused by y selzdi This is 5 different basic 'kinds' of happiness. They can stand alone or modify each other: salci gleki x is celebratingly-happy about y salgei gay/joyful se zdile gleki x is amusedly-happy about y selzdigei one kind of enjoy, but see below But we needn't stop here: There are related words that are useful for specific kinds of happiness: bebna x is foolish in y beb cando x is idle/at rest/inactive cad cizra x is strange/bizarre to y in z ciz cunso x is random/chance cun cu'o dimna x is the fate/destiny/doom of y - se dimna x is doomed to y seldimna fenki x is crazy/insane in doing/being y fek jgira x has pride about y jgi kanro x is healthy ka'o kufra x is comfortable in environment y kuf lifri x experiences y lif fri lijda x is the religion of people y with tenets z lij jda se lijda x follows religion y with tenets z seljda mansa x is satisfied with y - panpi x is at peace pap pensi x thinks about y pen pei prije x is wise/sage about y by standard/observer z pij racli x is sane/rational - ranxi x is ironic in that y rax stodi x is constant/invariant in y tod sto tarti x behaves/conducts self as y under conditions z tat tai tcaci x is the custom/habit of y under condition z cac tca xamgu x is good for y by standard z xag xau zabna x is the ameliorative of y zan za'a and let's be way out with siclu x makes whistling sound y with z sil sanga x sings y to z sag tinbe x obeys/follows command y by z tib All 24 of these can be applied as modifiers to gleki, selpu'a, selzdi, xalbo and salci, and in some cases each other. That gives over 120. Many will bring to mind a situation where they would be useful. Some, not all will suggest an English word equivalent (or possibly to Esperantists an Esperanto word, or to Nick, a Greek word.) All are valid tanru in Lojban. All more or less mean 'happy'. All can be made into lujvo. Anyone want to tackle the complete set systematically, giving us hundreds of words for the dictionary in one fell swoop. If you aren't that ambitious, try a few dozen, put together as you see fit (which may take a while) or a systematic subset (after doing this for a few minutes, you'll find you can't write them as fast as you can analyze them and put them together). I'll give several examples: bebna gleki x is foolishly-happy about y bebgei one kind of giddy fenki gleki x is crazily/insanely happy about y fekygei another kind zabna lifri x Experiences! y zanfri enjoys (my preference for this English word in most contexts) siclu gleki x is whistlingly-happy about y (whistling z with w) silgei (think Snow White and the 7 Dwarves) panpi kufra x is peacefully-comfortable in environment y papkufra content panpi gleki x is peacefully-happy about y papygei serene se lijda gleki x is religiously-believing happy about y seljdagei beatific And you can go the other way: gleki panpi x is happily-at peace (happy about y) glepanpi blissful geirpanpi Most English words will map to more than one Lojban word, because there are SO MANY Lojban words. For those not familiar with lujvo-making rules, the easiest form is to replace the final vowel of all but the last word with 'y', and write it as one word. Thus the 'easy' form of 'bebgei' is 'bebnygleki', and the two word versions are >absolutely the same<. If you want to try to shorten them, the following is a short set of rules omitting a couple of special cases that you'll rarely run into. See the Synopsis for complete rules. Remember that the final rafsi must end in a vowel, incompatible consonant junctures between affixes (voiced/unvoiced like bp, same consonant like bb, and both fricative -cjsz, and a few others - see the Synopsis or the back page of the Lojban-order gismu list) require a y 'hyphen' between the consonants. Also a CVV form requires 'r' as a hyphen in the first affix, unless immediately followed by a CCV affix (this to form the mandatory consonant cluster - use an 'n' if the following affix starts with 'r') Not enough? We have intensities: carmi x is intense in y cam cai milxe x is mild/gentle/unextreme in property y mli mleca x is less than y in property z by amount w mec me'a mutce x is toward the y extreme in property z mut mu'e traji x is superlative in property y taj rai zmadu x is more than y in property z by amount w zad zma mau carmi gleki x is intensely-happy about y camgei implies a particularly emphatic happiness mutce gleki x is very-happy about y mu'egle a little broader happiness than camgei, but still extreme gleki zmadu x is happy-more than y is (about z by amount w) glemau or happier geizma zmadu gleki x is more-happy about y (than z is by amount w) maugle or zmagei se gleki zmadu x is happy_making-more than y (than z is by amt w) selgeimau which can then be converted without lujvo making to: se selgeimau x is made-happy-more by y than by z by amt w a proper and fairly exact lujvo is selkemselgeimau but the following will probably be adopted selselgeimau because any other interpretation of selsel is a nullity Finally, we can also define happiness in terms of what it is not, or what it lacks: to'e polar opposite (c.f. Esperanto mal- ?) to'e no'e neutral scalar negation no'e badri x is sad/depressed about y dri claxu x lacks/is without y cax cau dunku x is anguished/distressed by y duk du'u fanza x annoys/irritates/bothers y by doing/being z faz se fanza x is annoyed by y doing/being z selfanza fengu x is angry at y for z feg fe'u junri x is serious about y jur pante x protests/objects/complains to y about z by doing w - raktu x troubles/disturbs y by z ra'u se raktu x is troubled by y doing z selra'u steba x feels frustration about y under conditions z seb xanka x is nervous/anxious about y - to'e badri x is polar-opposite of sad/depressed about y to'erdri to'e pante x opposite-of-protests to y about z by doing w to'erpante compliments y ... no'e pante x doesn't-protest to y about z by doing no'erpante has nothing to complain about to y is a reasonable interpretation of this as a lujvo, but there may be others se raktu claxu x is troubled-lacking of y doing z selra'ucau a specific kind of bliss or serenity suggesting: blissfully unaware of y doing z and I'll close by listing some others Jim Brown had in his old dictionary, which I don't always agree with (a version of his 'English equivalent' in parentheses): gleki culno x is happy-full of y (x is joyful about y) geiclu gleki xendo x is happy-kind towards y (x hearty/warm-hearted toward y) glexe'o gleki rinka x is happy-causer of y (x cheers y up giving) gleri'a se rinka gleki x is causedly happy about y by cause z selgleri'a (x is cheered up/cheerful about y cheered by z) (which we can use other causals in:) se mukti gleki x is motivatedly-happy about y by motive z selglemu'i se krinu gleki x is justifiedly happy about y with reason z selgleki'u or even se nibli gleki x is logically-necessitated to be happy about y by logic z (?!) selgleni'i Now its your turn. Let's see someone else post a few (dozen) for comment.