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Re: banli pu'u fanva



At 12:16 AM 02/24/2000 -0700, reciproc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca wrote:
> > We have some specialized computer words, but we need more and the list I
> > host at http://www.decadezero.org/skami_jvoste.html contains errors and
> > lacks places. I intend to fix this. If I get catalyzed, I can take care of
> > that next week. Working on this project will do that. .i mi djica le nu mi
> > tu'a vricyvelskuselnirna bau la lojban
>
>.i'o mi na pu djuno le du'u le skami jvoste cu zasti
>
>I notice you have "samynir" (which should be samynirna, btw) where I used
>"samci'e". The dictionary says that both nirna and ciste can mean network.
>So, knowledgeable types, what's the difference here?

nirna expresses the relationship between a neuron/nerve and the neural 
network that it is a part of. ciste is any system of structured 
interrelated components - it has the structure explicitly as part of the 
place structure as well as the system and its components.  Usually ciste 
will be the better word for "network" over selnirna (it would have to be 
samselnirna, BTW; you cannot choose a consonant-final rafsi for the last 
component of a lujvo, you cannot use "y" hyphen unless it is mandatory, and 
convention per the book seems to be that the final component should be 
correctly marked for conversion - samnirna would be a computer-neuron.)

Another possible word for network would be based on benji:  samxelbe'i 
would be a media of computer communication/transfer.

While I understand that people are desirous of having words for computer 
jargon in order to talk about things that they work on, jargon is probably 
the worst place to start in learning lujvo formation rules OR the art of 
choosing good metaphors.  The temptation will be to either be malglico 
based on the English keywords and modes of expressing the concepts behind 
the jargon, or to ignore the constraining effects of place structures on 
the meaning.  I would probably spend 3 or 4 times as long choosing a 
metaphor for a computer jargon term, and perhaps propose 3 or 4 with 
different place structures as dictated by conventions, rather than expect 
to make up a simple word list.  (Indeed, for most concepts I try to think 
up more than one plausible metaphor.  There SELDOM will be only one Lojban 
word for any English word, since English is so prone to polysemy (and this 
affects some jargon as well).

Make up jargon words for convenience, indeed, but tackle the place 
structures early rather than simply make lists of tanru.  These will be the 
lowest priority words to put in the dictionary, especially if merely listed 
without analyzing place structures since lujvo will not be listed without a 
proposed place structure.

(A translation of a commercial endeavor will be a bad place to have a lot 
of ad hoc words, so the big translation project is a nice learning 
challenge but should not be aimed at actually having it used, since the ad 
hoc lujvo that are created are likely to include many that will not stand 
the test of time, and the people running the project are not going to want 
half-baked translations which is the best that any Lojbanist could do at 
this point.)

lojbab

lojbab
----
lojbab                                             lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                    703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:  http://www.lojban.org (newly updated!)