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Re: [lojban] Dictionary format



At 04:59 PM 04/17/2001 -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
The Webster definition is:
1an-i-mal \'an-e-mel\ n
[L, fr. animale, neut. of animalis animate, fr. anima soul -- more
at ANIMATE]
(14c)
1: any of a kingdom (Animalia) of living beings typically differing
from plants in capacity for spontaneous movement and rapid motor
response to stimulation
2a: one of the lower animals as distinguished from human beings
2b: MAMMAL
3: a human being considered chiefly with regard to his physical or
nonrational nature; also: this nature
4: an individual with a particular interest or aptitude <the total
political animal ... the true professional in government --J.
M. Burns>
5: MATTER, THING <the theater...is an entirely different animal --Arthur Miller>
-- an-i-mal-like \-mel-,(l)[0xF5]^-k\ adj
-- an-i-mal-ness \-mel-nes\ n

2animal adj
(1615)
1: of, relating to, or derived from animals
2a: of or relating to the physical or sentient as contrasted with the
intellectual or rational
2b: SENSUAL, FLESHLY
3: of or relating to the animal pole of an egg or to the part from
which ectoderm normally develops
syn see CARNAL
-- an-i-mal-ly \-me-le^-\ adv



and if we were actually trying to do a real dictionary, we'd need to
have entries, or sub-entries, for each of those meanings.

My original intent was to do exactly that, using a commonly available dictionary as the source of word meanings. Given their availability, I would probably use one of the out-of-copyright dictionaries now available on the net, which would have such information for words and definitions used prior to 75 years ago.

But space would make this impossible (even if the volunteers were available) - the resulting text would necessarily be longer than the English-only dictionary, since it would have all that text as well as the Lojban. Printing costs are too high to include an English dictionary in with the E-L dictionary.

lojbab
--
lojbab lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org