Re: [lojban] Re: Beginner's take on the open/closed gismu debate(was: Re: emotions)

[Robin Turner <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

Jordan DeLong wrote:
> On Tue, May 27, 2003 at 09:53:38AM -0400, tbovee@daypoems.net wrote:
>
> > Speaking as an absolute beginner, aren't lujvo by definition a nonce
> > construction? And isn't that a good thing, because it allows the
> > writer to express concepts unlimited by dictionaries and Academies
> > of Language?
>
>
> You're thinking of tanru.  Tanru are a good thing.
>
> Lujvo are supposed to be defined with specific meanings and place
> structures.  Anyone can create them, but they should not be viewed
> as nonce words.
I don't see why they shouldn't - it's just that anyone who creates a 
nonce lujvo should bear in mind that the reader/listener may not 
understand.  It's just like a portmanteau word in a natural language - 
anyone can recognise that the recently-coined "alchopop" means same kind 
of fizzy drink with an alcohol content, but if I were to coin a term 
like "grat" to mean "a command involving grep and cat", only a few Unix 
afficionados would have a clue what I was talking about.

BTW, Chinese does this to an extent most English people or even 
Lojbanists would find astounding.  One of my Chinese teachers at 
university unconsciously transferred this to English and referredd to 
the external examiner as the "exterminator".

robin.tr

--
"A Perl script is "correct" if it gets the job done before your boss 
fires you."
 - Larry Wall

Robin Turner
IDMYO
Bilkent Univeritesi
Ankara 06533
Turkey

www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin