Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 13:21:24 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199710271821.NAA18985@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: bob@rattlesnake.com Sender: Lojban list From: bob@MEGALITH.RATTLESNAKE.COM Subject: Re: Dvorak (& Lojban) To: c9709244@alinga.newcastle.edu.au Cc: lojban@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU In-Reply-To: (message from HACKER G N on Sun, 26 Oct 1997 13:55:39 +1100 (EST)) X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1176 Lines: 32 ... Everything I can say in English is harder for me to say in Lojban, .... To me, the following is easier in Lojban: .i lo mi ke xekri bunre mlatu zu'a vu pu'o kalte le cmacu than English: Far to the left of me, one or more entitites that truly is or are one or more than one dark or black type of brown type of cat, and is `mine' or `ours' in some fashion, is or was or will be on the verge of hunting what I designate as mouse although it may be something else. Even if you know the context (I only have one black/brown cat, I am looking out my window on my left into the field), the English is still quite hard: Far to the left of me, my dark brown cat has not yet begun to hunt a mouse although I am confident she is in the state that is prior to the beginning of a hunt. English lacks spatial tenses like {zu'a} and event contours like {pu'o}, so an English translation is either longer or less definitive than the Lojban. -- Robert J. Chassell bob@rattlesnake.com 25 Rattlesnake Mountain Road bob@ai.mit.edu Stockbridge, MA 01262-0693 USA (413) 298-4725