Re: [lojban] Glossers, translators, and other tools ...

["Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>]

C.D.Wright@SOLIPSYS.COMPULINK.CO.UK wrote:
> ... There are some who have tried
> to implement something, and they seem largely to have
> produced a parse with brackets, and accompanied by a
> collection of lookups.
...
> The other camp seems to be those who, by the term
> "glosser," mean
>
>    "a translator that doesn't necessarily get
>       everything right, and may not produce
>       fully correct, idiomatic output."
>
> This is closer to the dictionary definition, but is
> it really what you want? Isn't everyone here trying
> to learn (or have learned) lojban?  Of what use is
> a real translation?

In linguistics, a gloss is a word for word "translation" with the 
translated words written immediately below the corresponding words of the 
other language.  At times a parenthetical word needed for structural 
clarity will be added in brackets, but this is not common.  Thus a 
linguistic gloss meets your 2nd definition above, but really is more akin 
to the first camp.  Nora's glosser optionally does not include the brackets 
(indeed you have to use the -p option to have it show them), but they seem 
a logical option for some given that she chooses prepositions based on the 
parser output, and because some complex Lojban sentences cannot be 
understood from mere word-for-word glosses.

So Nora's parser/glosser fits both definitions, which really are not 
incompatible.

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