Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:16:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1GqNF1-0000vv-CY for lojban-beginners-real@lojban.org; Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:16:47 -0800 Received: from elasmtp-galgo.atl.sa.earthlink.net ([209.86.89.61]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1GqNEx-0000vo-4m for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:16:47 -0800 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=dk20050327; d=mindspring.com; b=qiv5kzM5xRQPDndUfyrnlkCKdpCwePtAePdHCfDpjVxwHmpGm90ELh97FpRFqlNL; h=Received:Message-ID:Date:From:User-Agent:MIME-Version:To:Subject:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:X-ELNK-Trace:X-Originating-IP; Received: from h-66-167-9-50.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net ([66.167.9.50] helo=[127.0.0.1]) by elasmtp-galgo.atl.sa.earthlink.net with asmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1GqNEv-0003JF-SO for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Sat, 02 Dec 2006 00:16:42 -0500 Message-ID: <45710C41.8050805@mindspring.com> Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2006 00:16:49 -0500 From: Ronald Guida User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 (Windows/20061025) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org Subject: [lojban-beginners] Learning Lojban Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: bb67185be2c98d749c7f779228e2f6aeda0071232e20db4d864818cf16a33aba7ea174e7765ef8d7350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c X-Originating-IP: 66.167.9.50 X-Spam-Score: -2.4 (--) X-archive-position: 3755 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: ronguida@mindspring.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-list: lojban-beginners Content-Length: 1445 Hi. My name is Ron; I heard about Lojban and I have started to become interested in learning it. I saw the recent post on the Lojban home page that mentioned the difference between "learning" a language and "acquiring" a language. Currently, the only language I know is English. I am trying to figure out the best or fastest way to learn Lojban. It appears to me that the resources don't exist yet for me to learn Lojban through natural means (i.e. to "acquire" it), so I am wondering what is the next best thing. Right now, I am thinking that I should study the grammatical structures of Lojban first, before studying a bunch of vocabulary. The reason for this is I believe children learn grammar before vocabulary. Consider this English sentence prototype: "The X-ons are Y-ing in the Z." Based on grammar and word-formation heuristics, most likely X names a set (in plural), Y is an action being carried out at present, and Z is a location. This information creates context; the listener can use that context to help infer what X, Y and Z are. Presumably, children who have figured out grammar can learn new words by making inferences. I am thinking that I can learn Lojban grammar structures by constructing sentence prototypes that do not contain any actual gismu or lujvo. For example, ".i le X ca Y le Z". I believe Y is a connective, acting in the present, that connects X and Z. Is this correct? -- Ron