Return-Path: Message-Id: <9110241238.AA06947@relay1.UU.NET> Date: Thu Oct 24 15:59:01 1991 Reply-To: "61510::GILSON" Sender: Lojban list From: "61510::GILSON" Subject: RECOGNIZABILITY IN LOJBAN X-To: conlang X-Cc: lojban To: John Cowan , Ken Taylor Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Thu Oct 24 15:59:01 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!cuvma.bitnet!LOJBAN lojbab writes: >For example, I would ask Bruce whether he actually >looked up "kandi" and "dim" from my earlier posting when he used it as >an example of where he 'would not recognize' it. I would contend that >if he did not, the example is prima facie evidence that Bruce has formed >a link in his mind between "dim" and "kandi". Given some meaningful >reinforcement of this link over a period of time (as we seek in the >LogFlash teaching program), there is (presumably) a 2/3 chance that >Bruce will remember that link enough to recognize the clue word at some >arbitrary time in the future >knowing the rules whereby such >recognition is measured<. Actually my recollection of the meaning of "kandi" came from that discussion earlier on, where (I think) And Rosta asked why not "kanda" for Canadian, and he was told that that was too close to "kandi" to be permitted, and there was a following discussion including "why not use the same final vowel for all the gismu?" so the fact that "kandi" represents in part the English word "dim" was worked into my consciousness as a result of a long discussion on one specific word. This is not likely to occur for every word in the gismu list. I find it very easy to learn a few words in a language, no matter how unrelated it is to English; I know that "penda" is the Swahili root for "love" and that "yama" means "mountain" in Japanese. When it comes to really learning to read a language, however, I find that Lojban leaves no more memory hooks than say Finnish. I would have to say that in this area, even Esperanto, which I have often criticized (to the consternation of some) is an order of magni- tude better than Lojban.