Message-Id: <199601142220.AAA13707@xiron.pc.helsinki.fi>
Date:         Sun, 14 Jan 1996 20:20:48 -0300
Reply-To: Paulo Barreto <pbarreto@UNISYS.COM.BR>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Paulo Barreto <pbarreto@UNISYS.COM.BR>
Subject:      Re: SNU: ki'e doi skot.
To: Veijo Vilva <veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI>
Content-Length: 1763
Lines: 38

la lojbab. di'e cusku

>[...] There are several leaders in the
>community who automatically vote "no" on any new gismu proposal as a
>matter of principle.  Considering that many people consider that a standard
>of knowing the language consists of mastering the gismu list, it is true
>that each addition to the list makes mastering the language harder.

That's a very poor standard. I know many (non-English-native) people with a
rich English vocabulary but a terrible knowledge of English grammar; the net
result of this combination is at most funny.

Master vocabulary indicates good memory, not language proficiency. Furthermore,
the gi'uste is only a part the vocabulary a person must memorize. What do you
think is harder to remember, a single word "xorvo" or the list "{gugdrxrvatska,
kulnrxrvatska, bangrxrvatska, ...}"? And words for those concepts must be
known (or looked up) anyway when we want to express the associated concepts.

I doubt mastering the gi'uste weighs more than 20% in measuring Lojban
knowledge.
This means that adding, say, 50 new gismu would make the language less than 1%
harder, if that much (no, I'm not proposing 50 new gismu, that's a hypothetical
number).

IMHO freezing the number of gismu means resigning to accompany the evolution of
the concepts needed by human expression, therefore killing the language. If
youdeny
this, try to express "software" in Latin (Hmm, perhaps Nick wants to try :-)

Resistance to changes is good if one carefully examines the merits/demerits of
those changes. Blindly opposing them seems laziness rather than logic.

(Now let me hurry into an antinuclear bunker to survive Lojbab's reaction :-)

co'o mi'e paulos.

Paulo S.L.M. Barreto -- Software Analyst
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