Message-Id: <199607261648.MAA06633@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Fri, 26 Jul 1996 10:17:13 -0600
Reply-To: Chris Bogart <cbogart@POCC.GPSMET.UCAR.EDU>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Chris Bogart <cbogart@POCC.GPSMET.UCAR.EDU>
Subject:      Re: may the wind....
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
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> We should of course translate "may the wind..." first into what it means,
> something like
> ?? "I hope always/most of the time you are helped (by something)" ??
> and then into lojban
[...]
> 2) How can pe'a be understood by lojbo without reference to their
> (non-lojban) culture(s)?
> 3) And, underlying these two: is there any point in using or even having
> pe'a?


If you were using Lojban to communicate with someone from a very
different culture, or with a computer or an alien or something, then
you'd want to avoid cultural metaphors and be as explicit and
uncolorful as you could, to be understood.

However I'd expect metaphors could often be safely used in Lojban
because:
   - some metaphors might be obvious to any intelligent being regardless
        of culture (?is this true?)
   - very often Lojban interlocutors will happen to be from the same
        or related cultures
   - maybe there will eventually be a lojbanic subculture with its
        own metaphors

But I agree that speaking-without-metaphor ought to be a mode of
lojbanic usage that people train themselves to be able to use when
necessary.

chris


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