Subject: RE: [lojban] Re: word for "www" (was: Archive location.)

From: "And Rosta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 23:29:57 +0100

Adam:
> la .and. cusku di'e
> 
> > The whole point of lujvo is that they are words formed from parts
> that have
> > independent meaning within Lojban, but with a meaning that is not
> > equivalent to the sum of their parts.
> >
> > We need lujvo & fuhivla because for new meanings we need new words.
> 
> That is one way to look at it, but I like lujvo that are exactly the
> sum of their parts, and so far I have had relatively good luck with
> them. (i.e. if I think long enough I can generally come up with a good
> literalistic lujvo whose intended meaning is exactly the sum of its
> parts.)

Literalistic lujvo are good -- things like footfinger = toe,
handshoe = glove. Note that whereas "brode broda" has an infinitude
of possible meanings, "brode zei broda" has exactly one, determinate,
meaning. But things like selbroda = se broda are an
abomination. If I see "se broda" if have to consult the lexical
entry for "broda" to see what the phrase means, but if I see
"selbroda" I have to consult the lexical entry for "selbroda"
-- the very fact of using the lujvo implies that the meaning
is NOT "se broda". 

Zipfean shortening is not a sufficient reason for replacing a 
phrase with a lujvo, since (a) phrases and lujvo aren't semantically
equivalent, and (b) there is in general no mechanism available
in Lojban for Zipfean shortenings (i.e. no mechanism for shortening
high-frequency word strings).

--And.