Re: lojbo cinmo

[sdlee@xx.xxx.xx]

>>>>> "Bob" == Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) <lojbab@lojban.org> writes:


Bob> Well, Loglan 1, the original book, is entitled "Loglan - A
Bob> Logical Language". Do we actually have somewhere in our
Bob> advertising literature something that says "The" implying
Bob> "singular" or "only"? ("le logji bangu" would translate as
Bob> "the logical language" but not imply singularity of that
Bob> description, just in-mindedness).

This is just a translation, and as is, it is not _identical_ to the
original term. The translation of "le" to "the" is handy but lossy!

"le logji bangu", by definition, expresses that it is the speaker's
own SUBJECTIVE opinion that this language is "logical". The speaker
may, if he likes, use "le logji bangu" to refer to something that is
not a language and not a logical thing at all. This is why "le nanmu
cu ninmu vau" is not an illogical sentence (i.e. a contradiction).
However, the translation "the logical language" does not have this
implication of the subjectivity. It indeed slightly suggests that
"logical" is an OBJECTIVE nature of the language. Although this is
true for Lojban, the use of "the" would suggest that it is the sole
language that has this objective property.



Bob> The phrase "the logical language Lojban" strikes me more as
Bob> being an adjectival phrase, helping people to recall that
Bob> Lojban is both a language and purports to have something to
Bob> do with logic, rather than being a claim that no other
Bob> language is logical.

This is different. "The logical language Lojban" is different from
"the logical language". The articles in these 2 phrases have
different semantic effects. Without context, the latter would be used
to refer to the ONLY logical language of the world, implying that
there are no other logical languages. The former, on the other hand,
just means "the logical language which is called Lojban", with the
implication that there are other logical languages which have
different names.


Compare "The logical language Lojban" with "Lojban, the logical
language". Are they different? Compare the latter with "Lojban, a
logical language". Any difference?




-- 
Lee Sau Dan §õ¦u´°(Big5) ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 
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