On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Luke Bergen= <lukeabergen= @gmail.com> wrote:

That seems like a moot point. =A0"We shouldn't use lojban as the c= anonical word definition language because we won't be able to define ev= ery word without coming to a point of circularity". =A0We would have t= he same problem defining anything in terms of anything else. =A0You're = just crossing language borders to include english in the circularity (i.e. = what is "lo", it's an article like "the", what is &= quot;the"? =A0Well now you're in a loop of english definitions. = =A0It's not avoiding the problem, it's just expanding it to make it= multi-lingual.

> Many (all?) languages lack vocabulary for co= ncepts in other cultures. Lacking words doesn't mean that a=A0
> language (Klingon, in particular) can't be used to= talk about those concepts.

<= br>
Exactly, that's why the lojbanic cultu= re would probably be best served by lojbanic definitions for it's words= .

When the official dictionary does come out,= I'll probably be buying the english <-> lojban verison of it. = =A0But I don't think that the official definitions should be derived fr= om how english=A0describes a lojbanic word. =A0That seems malgli to = the extreme.

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 9:21 AM, Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu= > wrote:

On Thursday 21 April 2011 01:14:38 Jonathan Jones wrote:
> Ideally, /every/ Lojban word should be defined in Lojban. And whenever= a
> word /is/, that most certainly /is/ the canonical definition.

It's impossible to define every word in a language in the same la= nguage
without circularity. There must be some definitions which refer to things outside the language. All words for species of organisms: "cinfo"= , for
instance, is defined as any organism of breed x2 which belongs to the speci= es
Panthera leo, which is in turn defined by a type specimen.

Pierre
--
La sal en el mar es m=E1s que en la sangre.
Le sel dans la mer est plus que dans le sang.

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