[lojban] Re: How it should have been. And how it could be.

[Escape Landsome <escaaape@gmail.com>]

Hello,

> I think it would make sense to start a new language by releasing only
> a tiny amount of words at first, and then adding more very gradually
> on some sort of schedule.  Each new batch of words would be explored,
> defined, refined, clarified, and digested before any more would be
> added.  

AND PARTICULARLY THIS :

> The life of a word is a body of imagery, pedagogy, references,
> puns & rhymes, repeated explanations of subtleties of meaning, deep
> relationships the word has with the whole language, not just a dry
> association between a symbol and a sketch of a meaning.


... You have a point !

Indeed, a language is a lot of "intertextuality" or "pragmatic links"
between lexemes, or between lexemes/words and concrete situations or
cultural references...

A lot could be improved if we had such a thing...   But, listen, this
is not *that* difficult : to bring intertextuality in, it *suffices*
(so to say !) to have a bunch of "canonical texts" that provides some
clues for the usage of a lot of words or "idiosyncrasic
expressions"...   Consider for instance the case of a lot of natural
languages that don't have a written litterature : to make them have
one, it sufficed for some missionaries or ethnologists to record the
oral poetry of those people in books (and btw invent some
orthography), or to edit a version of the Gospel in the vernacular...

So, what do I suggest ?   Simply to translate some important books
(not necessarily religious ones) into Lojban : first the translation
work in itself, then the work of commenting the translations, will
make it necessary to create a lot of translation trends and ways and
fashions of translating or "accomodating" reality.   If, for instance,
we translated the Ethics of Spinoza, or Thus spake Zarathustra, or any
big philosophy book (but not a too obfuscated one), we would get both
a great deal of expressions-in-context, and efficient pragmatic
translations wisdom...

-- .esk

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