[lojban] Re: Why linguists might be interested in Lojban (was: RE: Re: a new kind of fundamentalism

[John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>]

Robin Turner scripsit:

> The two Lojbanisms that really caught on amongst the players 
> were "mabla" (correct usage) and "le do mamta cu gerku" (incorrect, in 
> canonical Lojban).

Well, it's *false*, but that doesn't mean it doesn't communicate.  When
GWB says that Iran and Iraq form part of a (transnational) axis, what he
says is surely false (they fought a 10-year war not so long ago, after all),
but it communicates something nevertheless.

This is a great example of why I think the semantics/pragmatics split is
intellectually pernicious.

"Big Brother is ungood."
	--blasphemy in Newspeak

-- 
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  ccil.org/~cowan
Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duos duonos		--Lithuanian proverb
Deus dedit dentes; deus dabit panem		--Latin version thereof
Deity donated dentition;
  deity'll donate doughnuts			--English version by Muke Tever