Re: Addendum / clarification

[George Foot <george.foot@MERTON.OXFORD.AC.UK>]

On Tue, 20 Oct 1998, C.D. Wright wrote:

> Sorry about the multiple posts in quick succession, but before
> I get even more emails telling me about the gismu list at ...
>
>     ftp://ftp.access.digex.net/pub/access/lojbab/wordlists/gismu
>
> Let me tell you why it's next to useless for me.  I have in mind
> a specific word in English ...  say  "like",  or  "toy".  How can
> I then find ...
>
> nelci : fond : x1 is fond of/likes/has a taste for x2 (object/state)
> kelci : play : x1 [agent] plays with plaything/toy x2
>
> Doing a search for  "like"  or  "toy"  will find all sorts of false
> matches.  I want to search for "like" and find the English word in
> the file, and know that the first word of that entry has a near exact
> match in the lojban gismu list.
>
> I need/want an English/lojban dictionary that doesn't give just the
> entries that have close equivalents, but gives near matches as well.
> That's what I'm trying to compile.

Have you seen engdict.gis?  It's a dictionary (English->Lojban)
of sorts.  Here's a sample (the meanings of `like'):

    *like (apparent similarity), x1 seems/appears to have
          property(ies) x2 to observer x3 under conditions
          x4 /:/ [also: x1 seems | it has x2 to x3; suggest
          belief/observation (= mlugau, mluti'i); looks
          |/resembles (= smimlu, mitmlu)] /=/ simlu (mlu)

    *like (similar), x1 is similar/parallel to x2 in
          property/quantity x3 (ka/ni); x1 looks/appears | x2
          /:/ [also: x1 is a likeness/image of x2; x1 and x2 are
          alike; similarity and parallel differ primarily in
          emphasis] /=/ simsa (smi)

    *like (taste |), x1 (ka) is a taste/flavor of/emitted by x2;
          x2 tastes of/| x1 /:/ [also: x2 tastes of seasoning
          x1, x1 is a seasoned flavor of x2 (= tsapyvu'i)] /=/
          vrusi (vus vu'i)

    &like,                                          x2 of nelci

The formatting is my own; the entries in the actual file are
unformatted (single *long* lines of text).  See the comments at
the start of the file for more information about it.  In
particular it's not complete.

The `*' in the above entries means that this is a gismu
definition; `&' means it's a place from a gismu.  There are also
some lujvo listed, marked by `%', and various cross-references
marked by `@'.

Personally I use this file to look up words; simply grep it for
a newline followed by either any character or one of the above
categories, followed by the English word you're looking for.

--
george.foot@merton.oxford.ac.uk

xu do tavla fo la lojban  --  http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/lojban.html