Re: lojban newbie: an outsider looking in

["Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 05:02 PM 10/28/99 -0400, Michal Wallace (sabren) wrote:
>I wonder, though, how to avoid this.. I mean, I don't know every
>word in the english language. How can you prevent two people from
>coming up with the same lujvo for two slightly different tanru?

You can't.  Some amount of this might happen.  But in practice, though I 
might wish otherwise, people who make words up are rather unusual in the 
community - most just use the tanru.

> > I have initiated the formation of a computer-related glossary, but it's got
> > a ways to go. Robin, Twery, Nicholas - your input here would be greatly
> > appreciated. And yours too, Michal!
>
>Out of curiosity, how are you tracking this? (Bob, too).. Perhaps
>the dictionar(y|ies) could be database-driven and put on the web?

Put briefly, no one is.  I am accumulating archives of Lojban text and 
discussion on the list of Lojban, including word proposals.  At some point 
we will analyze it (I hope).  If two people coin the same lujvo with 
different meanings, we may decide amongst them which to enshrine in the 
dictionary, or list both and let the community decide - we'll decide if it 
happens.  It is the choice between being descriptive and prescriptive.  We 
will probably err towards being prescriptive in the first dictionary 
(because people want a prescription as a starting point)and descriptive 
thereafter.  Thus words that are mismade from the standpoint of the 
conventions found in the reference book will likely be remade in the first 
dictionary so as to encourage the standard conventions.

> > You know, a CD rom sounds like a dandy idea.
>
>Yeah.. I've got a little spanish CD rom.. there's almost no english
>at all, except the manual. You just see little drawings and the text,
>and can hear the actors.. It also has a feature that listens to you
>and scores your pronunciation/accent... Except for the last bit,
>simple stuff.. Yet it's really effective.

We don't have people in one place and conversations, etc., written enough 
to record such a CD ROM.  We have a tape, recorded to go with the old 
textbook version, however.

lojbab
----
lojbab                     ***NOTE NEW ADDRESS***           lojbab@lojban.org
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