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Re: banli pu'u fanva
- Subject: Re: banli pu'u fanva
- From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>
- Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 02:07:14 -0500
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!)