From LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Sat Mar 6 22:52:08 2010 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Sun, 23 May 1993 21:35:59 -0400 Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 4940; Sun, 23 May 93 21:35:13 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 6506; Sun, 23 May 93 21:36:15 EDT Date: Mon, 24 May 1993 13:37:31 GMT+1200 Reply-To: Chris Handley Sender: Lojban list From: Chris Handley Organization: University of Otago Subject: Re: Cowan on morphology X-To: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu To: Erik Rauch Status: O X-Status: X-From-Space-Date: Mon May 24 13:37:31 1993 X-From-Space-Address: @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Message-ID: After some 'discussion' between And and lojbab, lojbab wrote: > > Loglan pre-GMR was very much like what you suggest would be better - >allowing jbama and klama to both be represented by -ama in a compound. It >was not as you say - people had to memorize every word they wanted to use, >and to rely on the dictionary for every little thing they did. The result >was that there was far less Loglan text written than you see these days >being posted to Lojban List. And people DIDN'T like it, and they >complained. And one noted linguist (Zwicky) was especially critical of >this. > Apart from anything else, recognising a word from its ending is phenomenally difficult. If you don't believe me, try a little test. Take twenty words at random (all about the same length) and divide them into two groups. For one group supply a definition and the initial syllable, for the other group supply a definition and the last syllable. Now test your friends and see how many they get right. I know what I expect, I would like tio see what results you get. In the mean time, for all you puzzlers out there, try and find a word with female connotations that ends in 'unt'. Answer later. ====================================================================== Chris Handley chandley@otago.ac.nz Dept of Computer Science Ph (+64) 3-479-8499 University of Otago Fax (+64) 3-479-8577 Dunedin, NZ ______________________________________________________________________ The light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off to conserve power.