From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Wed Oct 16 15:07:57 1991 Return-Path: Date: Wed Oct 16 15:07:57 1991 Message-Id: <9110161808.AA18907@relay1.UU.NET> Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: glossary of Lojban terms, so you can understand us - comments wanted X-To: conlang@buphy.bu.edu, lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu, nsn@munagin.ee.mu.oz.au To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO And Rosta complained about our Lojban jargon. Since an updated glossary is one of my soon projects here is a brief list. I'd like comments on how clear these definitions are to both active Lojbanists and others, and I'm also asking for people to submit terms that they think should be defined in such a glossary - even single word suggestions are welcome. Lojban and English jargon words that we use in talking about Lojban are both appropriate. To avoid net pollution, please send your suggestions and comments only to me unless you are raising an issue of truly general interest. lojbab@grebyn.com __________ cmavo - Lojban structure words; traditionally called "little words" or LWs in the old Loglan community, we figured if we were going to use a jargon word it might as well be a Lojban one - all cmavo are of form V, VV, CV, CVV, V'V, CV'V, but "structure words" is a valid equivalent gismu - Lojban root words; currently 1337; form CVCCV or CCVCV; traditionally called 'primitives' or "Prims" in the old Loglan community, that word gave the erroneous implication that the set of words was in some way considered metaphysically primitive. Penultimate stress rafsi - affix combining forms for the gismu; these may include a CVC, a CVV/CV'V and a CCV form, as well as the entire word and the entire word less the final vowel. These are uniquely assigned, thus not all words have rafsi, and few have all three forms. lujvo - compound words built from rafsi; traditionally called 'complexes' or 'Cpxs' (As you can see, JCB loves acronyms; I love trying to get people to talk in the language. Since the language itself is one of the key conversation topics, we needed the words anyway, and once we had them, we dispensed with the English language jargon. Note that we DO avoid use of terminology that has different meaning in linguistic circles or logic circles than in the general populace which is our main audience.) Always have a consonant cluster (though possibly split by schwa, which is used solely to link impermissible consonant clusters in lujvo and in the names of consonants), at least 6 letters, penultimate stress, and must not break down into a cmavo+valid word. le'avla (literally take-words) - words borrowed from other languages; must not overlap gismu and lujvo space - we have a couple of semi-algorithmic techniques used to ensure this. Considered second-class words. Penultimate stress, consonant cluster brivla - Lojban predicate words, consisting of gismu, lujvo. and le'avla. tanru - Lojban metaphors, the most productive and creative expression form of the language; JCB in effect hypothesizes that all concepts can be expressed as a series of binary metaphors of type modifier-modificand, with logical connectives permitted between terms and grouping markers to keep larger structures unambiguous. We have added some non-logical connectives. tanru are semantically ambiguous because you cannot be sure specifically what type of modification is taking place (restrictive is most common, though). jimc's incessant talk about dikyjvo is his attempt to reduce or remove the semantic ambiguity from tanru and the lujvo derived from them. The design team knows that removal of semantic ambiguity is impossible and refuses to consider imposing the metaphysical assumptions necessary to regularize the metaphor process. (JCB uses the term 'metaphor', here, but the standard connotation is that metaphors are figurative; at this point all figurative metaphors are suspected as being culturally biased, and are hence to be avoided. JCB's group does not do so, hence has some really crummy compounds. selbri - Lojban predicates (the relation minus the arguments), most often brivla or tanru; formerly called "kunbri" or "kunbridi" in error. bridi - Lojban predications, the basic grammatical structure of the language. These last two words were among the earliest switched to Lojban, because of the constant confusion and interchanging between predicate and predication, with the former often being used for both by the non-technical (including me). selma'o - grammatical categories of Lojban words; the basis of the unambiguous formal grammar of the language. Traditionally called "lexeme" in JCB's Loglan community, a more correct linguistic term would be 'grameme' - but you never see it in the literature. The last word switched (just this year), once we realized we were using an incorrect linguistics term.