[lojban-beginners] Re: Lojban Reader

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 2/7/06, Matt Arnold <matt.mattarn@gmail.com> wrote:
> As for the use of {ti}, the text has a location in 3D
> space-- on the screen. Words on a paper are nothing more than an arrangement
> of ink molecules. Why should an arrangement of light in a physical screen
> not qualify as pointable?

Well, Lojban tries (not always succesfully) to separate the physical
object, be it ink molecules or light in a screen, from the words represented
by those marks. {ti} would be used to refer to the physical stuff, and
{dei} to refer to the words. In {dei jufra}, {dei} has the same referent
when I write it and when you read it. If I say {ti barna lo mi vidni}
you'd have to understand that {ti} refers to something I am seeing on
my screen, not to someting you can see on yours. I don't know if this
distinction is sustainable, people seem to break it as often as not,
and in any case Lojban is not always consistent about it.

mu'o mi'e xorxes