Message-Id: <199709302228.RAA23205@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Lee Daniel Crocker Date: Tue Sep 30 17:28:56 1997 Sender: Lojban list From: Lee Daniel Crocker Organization: Piclab (http://www.piclab.com/) Subject: "Nearly Correct" (was New thread, anyone?) X-To: Lojban Group To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 2014 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Sep 30 17:28:56 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU > Nora has been working (off line) on analyzing lujvo for inclusion > in the dictionary. > > The concept is "almost correct". The forming tanru is either > jibni drani or drani jibni > > Which should it be? (Bonus credit for forming the lujvo yourself %^) > Why? What shoudl the palce structure be? "Almost Correct" This seems symmetrical to me: the near-thing is the same as the correct-thing, and either could serve as the tertau. The jvoste lists "jbidra", but its place structure has two anomalies I would argue with: the "property of nearness" place is retained, even though it is really answered by the lujvo itself: i.e., the near-thing is near in correctness. Those places are glossed as "metrics" rather than properties, but I think the same thing applies: if they are metrics, then "near" fills that place of "correct", so in either case one of those places should be ommitted (either j3 or d2). Similarly, j2 is really the same thing as d4: that to which the nearly-correct thing is near is its standard/ ideal of correctness. That leaves two choices: jbidra j1=d1 d2 d3 j2=d4 , and drajbi d1=j1 d4=j2 j3 d3 Even though the former is simpler (being identical to its tertau in structure--and really unneeded as a lujvo for that reason), I think I still prefer the latter: the gloss "x1 is nearly correct by standard/ideal x2 in property x3 under condition/situation x4" seems a more natural order than the other one, better emphasizing the almost-ness rather than the correct-ness. Also, the reorder gives it an excuse to be a lujvo, and it's easier to pronounce as an observative/ expletive, for which I think it would be useful. "drajbi!" sounds like a good expletive to me. -- Lee Daniel Crocker "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC