Message-Id: <4.2.2.20000917191850.00ae8640@127.0.0.1>
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 19:28:41 -0400
To: lojban@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [lojban] Glossers, translators, and other tools ...
Cc: lojban@solipsys.co.uk
In-Reply-To: <200009171312.OAA26378@nickel.cix.co.uk>
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From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>
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C.D.Wright@SOLIPSYS.COMPULINK.CO.UK wrote:
>... There are some who have tried
>to implement something, and they seem largely to have
>produced a parse with brackets, and accompanied by a
>collection of lookups.
...
>The other camp seems to be those who, by the term
>"glosser," mean
>
>    "a translator that doesn't necessarily get
>       everything right, and may not produce
>       fully correct, idiomatic output."
>
>This is closer to the dictionary definition, but is
>it really what you want? Isn't everyone here trying
>to learn (or have learned) lojban?  Of what use is
>a real translation?

In linguistics, a gloss is a word for word "translation" with the 
translated words written immediately below the corresponding words of the 
other language.  At times a parenthetical word needed for structural 
clarity will be added in brackets, but this is not common.  Thus a 
linguistic gloss meets your 2nd definition above, but really is more akin 
to the first camp.  Nora's glosser optionally does not include the brackets 
(indeed you have to use the -p option to have it show them), but they seem 
a logical option for some given that she chooses prepositions based on the 
parser output, and because some complex Lojban sentences cannot be 
understood from mere word-for-word glosses.

So Nora's parser/glosser fits both definitions, which really are not 
incompatible.

lojbab
--
lojbab                                             lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                    703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:                 http://www.lojban.org