Subject: Re: [lojban] dictionary - which words?

From: Jay F Kominek <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 14:14:18 -0600

On Sat, Aug 31, 2002 at 03:55:22PM -0400, Robert LeChevalier wrote:
> > then to include them in
> >the dictionary would just perpetuate the spurious and insidious notion
> >that these are in some way distinct from sequences of cmavo written
> >without a space. That notion already contaminates the ma'oste, and
> >should be knocked on the head, not reinforced.
> 
> You would have a descriptivist ignore actual usage? %^)
> 
> It is not that they are in some way distinct, it is that they have a 
> specific translation to English (or some other target language).

And vice versa. "sadness" should not be omitted from the dictionary
merely because it does not correspond to a single word.

> I did not say how they would be listed in the dictionary. It seems to me 
> that they should be listed in both forms, as actually used, and as separate 
> words, since as you say they both mean the same thing.
> 
> Perhaps:
> 
> semau: se mau: less than (grammatical conversion of mau)
> mau: more than; see also semau

I would simply omit the spaceless version, but sort it so that "se mau"
appears where "semau" would be. (And, I suppose, where you'd expect to
find it with the space in there.)

Further, it seems like a poor idea to try and use the dictionary to
correct a failing of the pedagogical process. Teach people how words
break apart properly, and this is a nonconcern.

-- 
Jay Kominek <[email-masked]>