Re: [lojban] terminators

[John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>]

MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com scripsit:

> There are currently 21 terminators in Lojban.  Would it be possible (though 
> I'm not proposing it) to create just one terminator to be used with every 
> selma'o that currently has its own terminator?

It would be, and in fact that was the original Loglan position.  "ku" (Loglan
"gu") was the only terminator at one time; its three current functions
(terminate description, terminate bare tag, and in the compound "naku") are
all that survive, all other termination functions having been moved to
other cmavo.

The difficulty with having just one terminator is that one must carefully
count terminators and use neither too many nor too few: it's like writing in
Lisp without editor support (the "%" key in vi, e.g.)  In any event, we
did not want Lojban to be a "kuku" language.  :-)

-- 
John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com> www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com
Micropayment advocates mistakenly believe that efficient allocation of
resources is the purpose of markets.  Efficiency is a byproduct of market
systems, not their goal.  The reasons markets work are not because users
have embraced efficiency but because markets are the best place to allow
users to maximize their preferences, and very often their preferences are
not for conservation of cheap resources.  --Clay Shirkey