From araizen@newmail.net Thu Sep 27 14:42:02 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: araizen@newmail.net X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 27 Sep 2001 21:42:02 -0000 Received: (qmail 50980 invoked from network); 27 Sep 2001 21:42:02 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by 10.1.1.222 with QMQP; 27 Sep 2001 21:42:02 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailgw2.netvision.net.il) (194.90.1.9) by mta3 with SMTP; 27 Sep 2001 21:41:56 -0000 Received: from oemcomputer (ras1-p96.rvt.netvision.net.il [62.0.180.96]) by mailgw2.netvision.net.il (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id XAA01156 for ; Thu, 27 Sep 2001 23:41:54 +0200 (IST) Message-ID: <05ea01c1479d$61e7bfe0$d8b5003e@oemcomputer> To: "lojban list" References: Subject: Re: [lojban] Dumb answers to good questions Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 21:08:13 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 From: "Adam Raizen" la xod. cusku di'e > > If that were possible, why wouldn't it be desirable? If Sapir-Whorf is > > correct, Lojban is supposed *expand* thought, and if it's limited in > > any way, then its not fulfilling its function as well as it could. If > > Lojban were simply a different whorfian classification of the world, > > what would be the point? > > > Are you under the impression the Lojban is supposed to "test" the SW > hypothesis in the aggressive, disproval sense of the word, meaning that > it's supposed to be a super-language that bypasses SW limitations by > assimilating all terrestrial expression? I'm not attacking that idea, it's > just one I never considered before. I'm not sure exactly how Lojban is supposed to test SW, but I was under the impression that if SW is correct, Lojban would be found to expand thought, not be limited in arbitrary ways. I don't think that it's actually possible for Lojban to assimilate all possible whorfian world-views (assuming that they exist), but whenever I find a new one, I sure want to try to express it in Lojban (and as simply and naturally as possible). Unfortunately, there's the problem that it's not completely clear exactly what type of thing is a whorfian world-view. mu'o mi'e .adam.