From cbmvax!uunet!PICA.ARMY.MIL!protin Tue Apr 16 10:42:56 1991 Return-Path: Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 10:36:14 EDT From: "Arthur W. Protin Jr." (GC-ACCURATE) To: nsn@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au Cc: lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com Subject: Re: lojban stylistics Message-Id: <9104161036.aa19083@COR4.PICA.ARMY.MIL> Status: RO Folks, I am slow. I do not understand the issue that Nick Nicholas is arguing with: > a conflict between two stylistics: > > 1. Strict sumti order. Advantageous in that mental parsing is straightforward. > When I first saw all them {fa} and {fe} in lojbab's tyranslation, I was > horrified. 'What is this - argument number two, argument number five? Yuck!' > > 2. Free sumti order. Motivated by two factors: > a. Emphasis. This is sorta what happens in free-order langs like Greek and > Esp, and what lojbab was emulating without asking too many questions (no > flame intended). > b. Conciseness. With good order, you kill off all them nasty terminators > you keep forgetting (get as many of 'em as possible elided out by the {.i}) Can someone help please? Arthur Protin These are my personal views and do not reflect those of my boss or this installation.