Re: [lojban] Re: required commas (was Re: Stress of cmene)

[Pierre Abbat <phma@webjockey.net>]

On Monday 05 May 2003 12:01, Jordan DeLong wrote:
> On Mon, May 05, 2003 at 09:58:18AM -0400, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> > The problem with 2 is that syllabication of vowels can be changed without
> > changing the sound of the word, e.g. {malau,is} vs. {mala,uis}.
>
> malau,is. is different from mala,uis. if you pronounce it correctly.

I can't hear the difference, but I can hear the difference between {kiku,ius} 
and {kikui,us}. That still doesn't mean that they are different words.

> > As to the ,=' rule, I think it's a mistake. Apostrophes are always
> > distinctive, whereas commas are not. {malauis} = {malau,is} <>
> > {malau'is}.
>
> I've prooved commas must be distinctive.  ,=' is a more sane rule
> than the commas-don't-matter rule; it takes precedence.

You haven't proved that. To prove it, you have to exhibit two different words 
which differ only in commas. If indeed commas matter, then {kikui,us} and 
{malau,is} are not words, whereas if they don't then they are the same as 
{kiku,ius} and {mala,uis}, which are words, so we haven't found a comma 
minimal pair. Even if both the forms differing by commas are both words, and 
have different meanings, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are 
different words, as names are allowed to be polysemous.

This is a matter for the VTPFK. Nora should have some insight into the 
question.

phma
-- 
.i toljundi do .ibabo mi'afra tu'a do
.ibabo damba do .ibabo do jinga
.icu'u la ma'atman.