Message-Id: <199407301828.AA18625@nfs1.digex.net> Reply-To: SLAUGHTER Date: Sat Jul 30 14:28:06 1994 Sender: Lojban list From: SLAUGHTER Subject: Re: current cmene project X-To: ucleaar X-Cc: lojban To: Bob LeChevalier Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Sat Jul 30 14:28:06 1994 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU From: ucleaar >As I understand things, "la beidjin" (for example) refers to something >named by the form "beidjin" (where the namer is the speaker). It would >seem to me that if we want a word for (in this case) the capital of >the Republic of China, we want something that instead means "x such >that x is Beijing", *NOT* "x such that I am calling x 'beidjin'". If >this is right, then Lojban Central should be seeking fuhivla, not >cmene, for the various states of the USA, etc. Naming is speaker-referent, not absolute. I'm sure the Native Americans had a name for the swamp we later called Washington, D.C., and in some point in the future, it may be called the Place-that-Was or some such by the pos-nuclear-holocaust inhabitants of the area. (see the short story "By the Waters of Babylon") Even now, some Americans have names for the place that are not really suitable for a public forum. I just wish we could have content-bearing cmene. I'd love to see a lojbanic cmene for the Snake River that non-accidentally had the "snakey-shaped river" lujvo in it. Makes translating, or creating, some naming traditions easier. People like Sun Bear, or Moon Unit Zappa. ************************************************************************** * Bob Slaughter * Model Railroading * * InterNet: Haldane@Pine.Circa.Ufl.Edu * is Fun!! * * * * * Bitnet: Haldane@UFPine * ask me about lojban * **************************************************************************