[lojban-beginners] Re: Confusion with Lojban For Beginners

[Alex Joseph Martini <alexjm@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006, Jim Dabell wrote:
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>
> Near the middle, it states that pritu means:
>
> x1 is to the right of x2, where x2 is facing x3
>
> However, in the examples at the bottom, it translates:
>
> la .iulias. pritu la mari,as. la klaudias.
>
> ...as:
>
> Julia is to the right of Maria, facing Claudia.
>
> Which reads very much like it is Julia facing Claudia, not Maria.  If
> I understand the above definition of pritu correctly, the original
> Lojban says that it is not Julia facing Claudia, but Maria.

The root of this problem is that English doesn't mark who is facing
Claudia. I have understood the lojban to mean that, when a particular
observer is facing Claudia, Julia is to the right of Maria. Sort of as
follows:

Maria       Julia

Claudia

(observer)

I'm not sure that I'm specifically correct, but I hope that I'm at least
clearer. Either way about it, I've used this definition in my past
lojban and if it proves incorrect they will need an update.

mu'omi'e .alex.

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