Re: lojbo cinmo

[sdlee@cs.hku.hk]

>>>>> "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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