Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 06:28:02 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801071128.GAA02223@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Re: & howabout ? (Was Knowledge & Belief) X-To: a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK X-cc: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1839 X-From-Space-Date: Wed Jan 7 06:28:02 1998 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU >Steve: >> One of the nicest properties of lojban is this "one word - one definition" >> idea. > >Where is this idea articulated/prescribed? I approve of the idea, but >sometimes it is incompatible with the (rest of the) prescription, and >sometimes it is incompatible with usage. > >--and. To some extent it goes back to the introductory brochure which says that Lojban does not have words with multiple unrealted meanings like "set", or with the large family of distantly related meanings like "run" where centuries of metaphorical extension has made the word excessively diverse in meaning. It was almost certainly stated in the original Scientific American article on Loglan, or at least implied. More recently, I am sure we discussed this kind of thing several times in JL, possibly in the early issues that are up on the net, since teh single cohesive meaning concept was one we spent a lot of time on at the first LogFest here in Virginia in Sept 1986. More explicitly, the fact that a brivla is defined with a particular place structure great ly restricts the possible range of meanings for the word. More officially authoritative, ther eis a sentence in the book at the beginning of Chapter 12: "Since lujvo, like other brivla, have a fixed place structure and a single meaning..." with the general context making it clear that this is in contrast to the polysemy of tanru. lojbab ---- lojbab lojbab@access.digex.net Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/" Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.