Re: [lojban] Response to Robin's "Essay on the future of Lojban"

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 4:37 AM, Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org> wrote:
>
> On the other hand, Nora just said something that I think profoundly reflects
> my misgivings.  She's tried (far more than I have) to understand xorlo, but
> she just can't get her mind around it.  That makes her feel incompetent at
> the language, which is the strongest demotivater for actually using it, much
> less doing byfy work.

That is a bit worrying.

That you claim not to understand it doesn't bother me so much, because
I suspect you are not really that interested, but I think Nora
shouldn't have any problems. She may be looking in the wrong place.
The definition is most clearly given in Lojban itself (as included in
the corresponding BPFK section):

    lo broda = zo'e noi ke'a broda

Is it really that hard to understand? If you like, you can expand by
pointing out that there is nothing about quantifiers or existence or
"in the world" or definiteness/indefiniteness, or things like that in
there, but that's just in order to contrast it with possible
misunderstandings. Or compare it with "fi'o":

fi'o: convert selbri to sumti tag.
lo: convert selbri to sumti

What more needs to be said? Nobody has problems with "fi'o", right?

> If Nora and I are at our limit, and we're reasonably bright and were at one
> time among the most skilled of Lojbanists, then the concept of byfy
> continuing to refine and formalize things even more than they are (and more
> than minimally necessary to USE the language) stands to make our investment
> in learning the language a waste of time.

If I may offer advice, you should stop right now any investment you
are making in learning, and start using. The additional learning will
come free as a bonus.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.