From: m.kornig@sondal.net
Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: dicussions about basic vocabulary
Okay I understand your point. Let's add some more
"web-communicaton" words to my list.
..."smacu" (mouse),
I would not think that a good idea. {smacu} is the word
for an animal. It's a poor metaphor in English as the
resemblance to a small rodent is at most physical.
(Possibly the use of "mouse" helped market the idea
to nervous users.) But it would be preferable IMO to have
a tanru that describes a pointer-controlling instrument
moved by the hand: some combination selected among
jitro x1 controls x2...
jgari x1 grasps x2...
xance x1 is a hand...
gidva x1 guides/pilots/leads x2...
jesni x1 is a needle
jipno x1 is a tip/point/vertex...
tunta x1 pokes/jabs x2...
{xancu gidva jipno} has a nice ambiguity as
it could suggests both hand-guided pointer
and hand-related guiding-pointer (yes, I know
there are rules). The hand guides the pointer
and the pointer guides the eye.
The mouse pointer on the screen (the image controlled
by the hand) needs a separate name. I suppose
{taljipno} (that-ish-vertex) would be ungrammatical...