Message-Id: <199512201612.SAA27314@xiron.pc.helsinki.fi>
Date:         Wed, 20 Dec 1995 08:02:20 -0800
Reply-To: "John E. Clifford" <pcliffje@CRL.COM>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: "John E. Clifford" <pcliffje@CRL.COM>
Subject:      lojban changes
To: Veijo Vilva <veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI>
Content-Length: 960
Lines: 15

Looking at what I wrote the other day, I see that I have fallen too much
into the atmosphere that pervades those threads.  I do NOT think that
Lojban is desperately in need of repair, even patching.  No one has
presented a really convincing case of something we just cannot say in
Lojban; though there are many cases of things that are hard to say or
whose accurate expression requires so much circumlocution that the
message may get lost in the medium. But the language is as serviceable as
English, wherre the same things are often even harder to get right.  What
Lojban lacks more than expressive ability is a clear statement of what
can be said and how to say it and that's flip-side, a clear statement of
what various constructions do say.  A reference grammar and a dictionary
for starts and a volume of good usage for follow-up.  And Lojban is such
a pretty thing that, with a good start, we will provide all that is
needful and joy in doing so.
pc>|83