[lojban-beginners] Re: Translation effort...

[Dr EK Sklyanin <eks2@york.ac.uk>]

On Wed, 21 May 2003 11:32:30 +0800 c1tk@c1tk.cjb.net wrote:

>coi rodo,
>
>As part of my effort to learn Lojban, I have been trying to translate
the
>"Helpful Tip" given on http://www.villainsupply.com/miscevil.html. Here
is
>what I have made of the first sentence:
>
>	.i le seljdadji cu xusra du'u le nu palci cu makfa nunbai .ije
ri
>	gunka le zu'o ri fapro le cevni kei le za'i le prenu na curve
>
>What it should mean:
>
>	Theologians define Evil as a supernatural force vying against
God to
>	corrupt mankind.
>
>Are there any mistakes in my translation, and/or any areas in which the
>phrasing can be improved?

Put {le} before {du'u}. Though the sentence contains no formal
grammatical errors (it passes jbofi'e test), without {le} the selbri of
the first sentence is {du'u} modified (forming a tanru) with {xusra}.
The resulting meaning is something like "theologians are themselves the
content of the proposition "The Evil is a supernatural force"" which is
nonsense. With {le} the selbri becomes {xusra} and
{le du'u...} becomes its second sumti.

I have some doubts about the choice of lujvo but I leave it other people
to comment.

 co'o mi'e .evgenis.