From LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Sat Mar 6 22:52:58 2010 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Sun, 1 Aug 1993 00:22:05 -0400 Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 7347; Sun, 01 Aug 93 00:20:51 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 4747; Sun, 01 Aug 93 00:22:21 EDT Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1993 00:20:04 EDT Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Re: 'Letteral' (Was: comments on the batch of lujvo etc. psoted thus far) X-To: C.J.Fine@BRADFORD.AC.UK X-Cc: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Erik Rauch Status: RO X-Status: X-From-Space-Date: Ukn Aug 1 00:22:06 1993 X-From-Space-Address: lojbab@GREBYN.COM Message-ID: <3EYknLnat6O.A.dT.K10kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org> I would agree with not glossing lerfu as jargon, except that ALL of the Lojban "language" terms tend to be glossed as jargon. I mean who among NORMAL English speakers knows what a "predicate" is, and we already know what kind of misunderstandings JCB got from using "primitive" for gismu. "Complex" is only mildly less gross for "lujvo" - though And obviously thinks it an appropriate gloss %^). Using a word that is "English" for a concept that does not map well to English is not necessarily the best solution if it causes misunderstandings on non-understanding. "letteral" for all the fact that it is 'not an English word' resembles the word "letter", and in the long definition is clearly defined as letter/numeral/symbol, so it is reasonably easyto learn this jargon. If further advised that the "al" was added in parallel to number/numeral letter/letteral, the word becauses even easier to learn. Given that "letter" is ambiguous and is used as the keyword for "xatra" anyway, and "symbol" to most people means "sinxa", I think most real English words that could be used for the concept would be at least as abstruse as "letteral" and less learnable. I doubt if many people not into fantasy roleplaying have heard of the word "glyph", for example - and I, having heard of it, would not presume it to be a general term to cover any kind of symbol, but rather is limited to those symbols which are ornate and somewhat cursive in style. This is my sense of the word without actually looking it up in the dictonary, of course. lojbab