[lojban] Re: Any volunteers for "Phrasebook. A multilingual dictionary"? (No Lojban skills required)

[la gleki <gleki.is.my.name@gmail.com>]

On Thursday, September 13, 2012 1:30:37 AM UTC+4, guskant wrote:
> Do you aim at giving a phrasebook only for English speakers? If so, I
> have no interest in it; if not, I would like to make some comments.
>
> Because the column on the left end is not Lojban but English,
> translators translate the phrases naturally from English. This method
> simply establishes malglico.
>
> For example the greetings: I opine only the phrases {coi}, {co'o} and
> {pei} are enough for the list.
>
> Distinction of the time of a day, as well as meaning of each word used
> in the greetings, depends on the language. For example in Japanese,
> they use neither {xamgu} nor {cerni} but {clira} for the greeting of
> the morning or the beginning of working time (even in the nighttime);
> neither {xamgu} nor {lerci} nor {donri} but {lo cabdei zo'u} for the
> greeting of the daytime; there is no specific greeting of the
> afternoon. If you suppose non-English speakers to be readers of the
> phrasebook, these malglico may be great defects.
>
> If you put the column of Lojban on the left end and reduce the
> greeting phrases to {coi}, {co'o} and {pei}, translators may produce
> plural translations for one Lojban phrase, and it's enough for a
> phrasebook of common use. Lojban speakers may add {xamgu}, {cerni},
> {clira}, {lerci}, {donri} etc. as they like, but these words are
> useless for a phrasebook of common use.
>
> Other categories are also dotted with malglico. For example, {do nanca
> ma --- mi li repa nanca}.
> I opine they are talking about the lifetime, not the actual age.
>
> {nanca} is a gismu with x2 as quantity. When we talk about a
> continuum, the universe of discourse includes habitually the whole
> body of the continuum. Moreover, "Numbers need never be specified, but
> if they are specified they must be correct" (CLL 6.6). With these
> preconditions, using the phrase {mi li repa nanca} for the actual age
> is incorrect.
>
> For clearness, suppose you measure the length of a canal about 500
> metres long with your average step length. You begin with one end of
> the canal, and walk along the bank toward the other end counting the
> number of steps. When you come near to the middle of the canal, I ask
> you {lo naxle cu mitre ma}. If you answer {lo naxle li remuno mitre},
> it is simply incorrect, because the universe of discourse includes the
> whole canal, and the length of it should be {mitre li ji'i munono}. If
> you want to answer the length of the part you have already measured,
> you need to mention the endpoint(s) of the measurement {ta bi'i ti li
> remuno mitre}, or add {za'u}: {lo naxle li za'u remuno mitre}. The
> same discussion can be applied to {nanca}. I would say {do ca ze'e pu
> nanca ma --- li repa / mi li repa ca ze'e pu nanca} to talk about the
> actual age, and {do nanca ma --- li za'u repa / mi li za'u repa nanca}
> to talk about the lifetime.

Please make corrections to the phrasebook. I think English should be detached.

The general idea is that you visit any country (even if it's Lojbanistan),

open two columns (in your mother tongue) and in the language of the country 

you are visiting. The phrasebook must give you the ability to speak

(given that you have some knowledge of the language).

> mu'o

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/lojban/-/EspiUoSjHWAJ.
 
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.