[lojban] Re: "point"?

[Matt Arnold <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On 12/13/05, Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> wrote:
> I'd rather throw my hands up in the air and say "We can't use Lojban
> to talk about computers ever, sorry." than use "vorme" for "web
> link".
>
> That *may* be a slight exagerration, but it doesn't feel so right
> now.
>
> -Robin


That is a definite difference in philosophy. Supposedly one of the
uses for Lojban is as an experiment on the human mind, to see how it
evolves when people who are not experts in linguistics and logic
actually start using it on a casual basis and have to live with it.
When that happens, how will it depart from the rigidly standardized
baseline of the experts? Well, this goal is happening now, and there
are some quarters in which the fulfillment of this purpose is not
welcomed.

{vorme} to mean "web link" feels right to the non-expert. It's a
spandrel. It's the sloppy stop-gap measure so typical of natural
evolution. It's Lojban slang. It's out of the control of the
grammarians who know better. Conflicts like this arise when experts
feel that the language isn't ready for the transition yet; that it
hasn't had a chance to be thoroughly canonized.

"Wait a second," they say. "The plan was that Lojban would only be
spoken by the sort of pedant who used to correct your grammar in grade
school all the time. Then and only then would Moses' tablets be
brought down to the casual user who would skew it all over the place,
because at least that way we'd be able to know they were violating the
canon. Are we going to skip that stage?" they wonder.

In this way Lojban is like a kite which is in glorious flight before
its maker has got it tied to the frame really tightly and some of its
streamers are on crooked.

-epkat


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