From cbmvax!uunet!cuvma.bitnet!LOJBAN Sat Jan 11 00:39:51 1992
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Date: Sat Jan 11 00:39:51 1992
Message-Id: <9201110332.AA05624@relay2.UU.NET>
Reply-To: cbmvax!uunet!bradford.ac.uk!C.J.Fine
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From: CJ FINE <cbmvax!uunet!bradford.ac.uk!C.J.Fine>
Subject:      Semantic precision
X-To:         Lojban list <lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu>
To: John Cowan <cowan@snark.thyrsus.com>
Status: RO

As I look through translations in JL or on the net, I quite often think
"I don't like that choice of gismu, because that's not what its
arguments mean". It's happening so often that I am beginning to wonder
whether I'm just being over-precise.

Some examples:

facki   "discover ... about ..."
        - it seems to me that this means 'find out' and not 'find'. If
        you want 'find', you need "facki le stuzi da"
djuno   "know ... about ..."
        - I would not use this for 'know a person' or even 'know a
        word'. With that definition, a seldjuno must be a (potential) fact
zdile   "amusing to ... in ..."
        - does this mean 'is funny to' or 'occupies ... pleasantly'?
        They are different, I believe, and I thought that the 'funny'
        meaning was right: but in JL10 Sylvia - and lojbab - used
        'zdile' to translate 'drawing room'.

opinions?

                        kolin