Re: [lojban] deciphering the gismu list

[Pierre Abbat <phma@webjockey.net>]

On Saturday 06 September 2003 18:39, xah wrote:
> ( http://www.lojban.org/publications/wordlists/gismu.txt )
>
> is there a format spec for the gismu list?
>
> i.e.  a sample line from the gismu list looks like this:
>
>
> pensi pes     pei  think                'pensive'            x1
> thinks/considers/cogitates/reasons/is pensive about/reflects upon
> subject/concept x2          3l 164    [also: x1 is thoughtful (one
> sense); x2 is mental (one sense)/intellectual (one sense) (= selpei)];
> (cf. cmavo list pe'i, jijnu, menli, morji, sidbo, jinvi, se nabmi,
> minra, lanli, besna, saske, skami)
>
>
> Multiple spaces are used as column separators. What are "pes" and
> "pei"? and what's the diff between the semantic position at "think" and
> "'pensive'"?

"pes" and "pei" are called "rafsi". They are forms used in compound words, 
such as "nunpei" (thought, the event of thinking) and "selpei" (thought, a 
thing one thinks). The word in single quotes is often a word that is 
phonetically more similar than the gloss to the Lojban word, e.g. for "basti" 
the word is "substitute", which has four letters in common in order with it.

> What does the "3l 164" refers to?

I think those are usage statistics, used to decide which words get more rafsi.

phma