From LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Sat Mar 6 22:44:37 2010 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Wed, 2 Jun 1993 03:01:22 -0400 Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 5266; Wed, 02 Jun 93 03:00:25 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 8168; Wed, 02 Jun 93 03:01:46 EDT Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993 02:59:32 EDT Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Erik Rauch Status: O X-Status: X-From-Space-Date: Tue Jun 1 22:59:32 1993 X-From-Space-Address: @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Message-ID: 06/01/93 Lojban baseline rafsi list part 4 of 5 This list is in the public domain. However, we ask that this header be retained on all distributed copies, so that people have some idea what they are looking at and how to get more information. For information about the artificial language Loglan/Lojban, please contact The Logical Language Group, Inc. (LLG). We ask that you provide a paper-mail address as well as an email address if appropriate The LLG is funded solely by your contributions, which are encouraged for the purpose of defraying our costs (for both electronic and paper distribution.) Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 email: lojbab@grebyn.com xa xav 6 xabju xa'u dwell xadba xab half xadni xad body xagji hunger xagri reed xajmi xam funny xaksu xak use up xalbo levity xalka xal alcohol xalni panic xamgu xag xau good xampo xap xa'o ampere xamsi xas sea xance xan xa'e hand xanka nervous xanri xar imaginary xanto elephant xarci xac xa'i weapon xarju xaj pig xarnu stubborn xasli donkey xasne sweat xatra xa'a letter xatsi xat 1E-18 xazdo xaz zdo Asiatic xe xel 5th conversion xebni xen xei hate xebro xeb bro Hebrew xecto xet cto 100 xedja xej xe'a jaw xekri xek xe'i black xelso xes Greek xendo xed xe'o kind xenru xer xe'u regret xexso xex 1E18 xindo xin Hindi xinmo xim ink xirma xir xi'a horse xislu xil xi'u wheel xispo xip Hispanic xlali xla bad xlura xlu influence xotli xol xoi hotel xrabo rab Arabic xrani xai injure xriso xis xi'o Christian xruba xub buckwheat xruki xuk turkey xrula rul flower xruti xru return xukmi xum xu'i chemical xunre xun xu'e red xurdo xur xu'o Urdi xusra xus xu'a assert xutla xul smooth za'i zaz state abstract za'o za'o superfective zabna zan za'a favorable zajba zaj gymnast zalvi zal grind zanru zar zau approve zarci zac zai market zargu zag za'u buttock zasni zas temporary zasti zat za'i exist zbabu bab soap zbani bay zbasu zba make zbepi zbe pedestal zdani zda nest zdile zdi amusing ze zel 7 ze'e ze'e whole time interval ze'o zev ze'o outward zekri zer zei crime zenba zen ze'a increase zepti zep 1E-21 zetro zet 1E21 zgana zga observe zgike zgi gi'e music zifre zif zi'e free zinki zin zi'i zinc zirpu zir zi'u purple zivle ziv vle invest zmadu zma mau more zmiku zmi automatic zo'a zon zo'a tangential to zo'i zor zo'i inward zu'o zum activity abstract zukte zuk zu'e act zumri zmu maize zungi zug guilt zunle zul left zunti zun zu'i interfere zutse zut tse sit zvati k zva at Lojban lujvo-MAKING - Rules for Lojban word forms - The lujvo must be formed according to Lojban's word-formation rules. The constraints of Lojban word forms forbid any lujvo from ending in a consonant, so that words most commonly found in the final position of a tanru have been prioritized to have a rafsi that ends in a vowel. However, words found in initial positions often form better sounding combinations if their rafsi end in a consonant. (Also, because we usually recognize words by the consonants in them rather than the vowels, the rafsi of form CVV and CV'V are harder to memorize. Note: C and V in abbrevaiations of this sort stand for any Lojban consonant and vowel, respectively. The apostrophe is the Lojban "'", which is considered neither a consonant nor a vowel.) Certain sounds are forbidden to occur next to each other (so- called 'impermissible medial' consonants), and must be separated by a 'hyphen'-sound, the "uh" of "sofa", represented in Lojban by the let- ter 'y' (this letter is found only as a hyphen, in lerfu, the words for letters of the alphabet, and along to represent the hesitation noise. It is thus not normally considered a 'V' is the C/V convention scheme. Indeed, "CyC" is considered a consonant cluster in Lojban morphology, albeit a hyphenated one). In addition, a CVV or CV'V rafsi at the beginning of any lujvo must either carry the penultimate stress, it must be 'glued' to the remaining rafsi with a syllabic 'r' or 'n' sound, or the rafsi falls off into a separate word, a cmavo. (In addition, a CVV or CV'V rafsi followed by another CVV or CV'V rafsi in a 2-term lujvo must have the 'r' or 'n' added, or the consonant cluster mandatory in any brivla in not present, and the rafsi break up into two separate cmavo.) - Multiple rafsi to choose from - Because of these rules, there is usually more than one rafsi usable for each gismu. The one to be used is simply whichever sounds best to the speaker/writer. There are many valid combinations of the possible rafsi. Any rafsi for a given word is equally valid in place of another, AND ALL MEAN THE SAME THING. There is an optional scoring component to the lujvo-making algorithm which attempts to systematically pick the 'best' one; this algorithm tries for short forms and tends to push more vowels into the words to make them easier to say. The Japanese, Chinese, and Polynesian speak- ers will prefer this; Russians have a different aesthetic, since they are used to saying consonant clusters. But these are not necessarily the criteria you will wish to use. - lujvo have ONE meaning - While a tanru is ambiguous, having several possible meanings, a lujvo (one that would be put into the dictionary) has ONE MEANING. Just like gismu, a lujvo is a predicate which encompasses one area of the semantic universe, with one set of places. Hopefully this is the most 'useful' or 'logical' of the possible semantic spaces. A known source of linguistic drift in Lojban will be as Lojbanic society evolves, and the concept represented by a sequence of rafsi that is most 'useful' or 'logical' changes. At that time, it might be decided that we want to redefine the lujvo to assume the new meaning. lujvo must not be allowed to retain two meanings. So those that maintain the dictionary will be ever watchful of tanru and lujvo usage to ensure this standard is kept. One should try to be aware of the possibility of prior meanings of a new lujvo, especially if you are writing for 'posterity'. If a lujvo is invented which involves the same tanru as one that is in the dictionary, and is assigned a different meaning (including a different place structure), linguistic drift results. This isn't necessarily bad; it happens in every natural language. You communicate quite well in English even though you don't know most words in the dictionary, and in spite of the fact that you use some words in ways not found in the dictionary. Whenever you use a meaning different from the dictionary definition, you risk a reader/listener using the dictionary and therefore misunderstanding you. One major reason for having a standard lujvo scoring algorithm is that with several possible rafsi choices to consider, a dictionary is most efficient by putting the definition under the single most preferred form. You may optionally mark a nonce word that you create without checking a dictionary by preceding it with "za'e". "za'e" simply tells the listener that the word is a nonce word, and may not agree with a dictionary entry for that sequence of rafsi. The essential nature of human communication is that if the listener understands, then all is well. Let this be the ultimate guideline for choosing meanings and place structures for invented lujvo. - Zipf's law and lujvo - This complication is simple, but is the scariest. Zipf's Law (actually a hypothesis), says that the length of words is inversely proportional to their frequency of usage. The shortest words are those which are used more; the longest ones are used less. The corollary for Lojban is that commonly used concepts will tend to be abbreviated. Speakers will choose the shortest form for frequently expressed ideas that gets their meaning across, even at the cost of accuracy in meaning. In English, we have abbreviations and acronyms and jargon, all of which are words for complex ideas used with high frequency by a group of people. So they shortened them to convey the often-used information more rapidly. The jargon-forming interpretation of Zipf's Law may be a cause of multiple meanings of words in the natural languages, especially of short words. If true, it threatens the Lojban rule that all lujvo must have one meaning. The Lojbanist thus resigned accepts a complication in lujvo-making: A perfectly good and clear tanru may have to be abbreviated, if the concept it represents likely will be used so often as to cause Zipf's Law to take effect. Thus, given a tanru with grouping markers, abstraction markers, and other cmavo in it to make the tanru syntactically unambiguous, in many cases one drops some of the cmavo to make a shorter (incorrect) tanru, and then uses that one to make the lujvo. This doesn't lead to ambiguity, as it might seem. A given lujvo still has exactly one meaning and place structure. But now, more than one tanru is competing for the same lujvo. This is not as difficult to accept or allow for as it might seem: more than one meaning for a single tanru was already competing for the 'right' to be used for the lujvo. Someone has to use judgement in deciding which one meaning is to be chosen over the others. This judgement will be made on the basis of usage, presumably by some fairly logical criteria. If the lujvo made by a shorter form of tanru is already in use, or is likely to be useful for another meaning, the wordmaker then retains one or more of the cmavo, preferably ones that clearly set this meaning apart from the shorter form meaning that is used or anticipated. In Lojban, therefore, shorter lujvo will be used for a less complicated concept, possibly even over a more frequent word. If two concepts compete for a single rafsi sequence, the simpler concept will take a shorter form, and the more complex concept will have some indication of its more complex nature added into the word structure. It is easier to add a cmavo to clarify the meaning of a more complex term than it is to find a good alternate tanru for the simpler term. A good lujvo-composer considers the listener, and a good lujvo interpreter remebers the difficulties of lujvo-making. If someone hears a word he doesn't know, decomposes it, and gets a tanru that makes no sense for the context, he knows that the grouping operators may have been dropped out, he may try alternate groupings. Or he may try using the verb form of the concept instead of the first sumti, inserting an abstraction operator if it seems plausible. Plausibility is key to learning new ideas, and evaluating unfamiliar lujvo. SHORT FORM OF THE LUJVO-MAKING ALGORITHM The rules for the lujvo-making algorithm are stated formally. This may cause it to appear intimidating to a casual reader, and to seem harder than it really is to use. The following brief form, is more practical to learn. 1. Find all rafsi forms for the component words. 5-letter forms can only occur in final position, 4-letter+y form, and CVC short forms can only occur in non-final positions. Make all possible combinations of the rafsi for the component words, keeping the order of the component words. 2. Between any two impermissible medial consonants (see 5c of the formal algorithm), stick a y. 3. Where there is a consonant triple formed where two rafsi join, if it is impermissible (see 5d of the formal algorithm), stick in a y where they join. 4. If you have a CVV rafsi at the beginning, add in an r hyphen after it. An n is used instead if the letter after the hyphen is also an r. However, in a tanru with only 2 parts, do not add a hyphen when the second rafsi is a CCV-form. 5. Always stick in a y hyphen after a 4-letter form, which is the gismu without its final letter. 6. Perform the "tosmabru" test. Starting from the left, look for a sequence of 2-or-more CVC rafsi ending with (the first) hyphen 'y', or one-or-more CVC rafsi followed by an endDofDword CVCCV full word rafsi with a permissible medial as the CC. If either case occurs, look at each consonant pair, and if all of them are permissible initial consonant pairs, insert a 'y' hyphen between the first consonant pair.