From robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx Sat Dec 4 06:42:50 1999 X-Digest-Num: 302 Message-ID: <44114.302.1650.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 16:42:50 +0200 From: Robin Turner > From: "Jorge Llambias" > > >My ability is limited by my knowledge of Lojban. I am not yet able to > >translate any single set of patent claims into Lojban, although each time > >I translate Japanese patent claims into English, I very much deplore the > >ambiguity of the original and the extra ambiguity introduced by the > >translation. > > Can we be sure that Lojban will do any better? Do you have > a short patent claim example that we could try to translate > into Lojban to see whether the Lojban version really is > better than the English one? I doubt anybody is yet able to > translate a single set of patent claims into Lojban, but > we could start by trying. I admit that I have no idea > what kind of support I could give you. The text you asked > to translate last time is totally out of reach for my > current abilities in Lojban, and it wasn't even a patent > claim, but it had a lot of difficult jargon. > If it's beyond Jorge's capacities, it's probably beyond anyone's ;-) However, I think it would be good ammunition to provide versions of a particularly ambiguous part of a patent claim - even just one or two sentences - in the original, in an English translation, and in Lojban, with a commentary on the ambiguities involved. Good opportunities would be provided by ambiguities in parsing, connectives (e.g. OR vs XOR, IF vs. IFF) or reference (e.g. who or what does "they" refer to?). Given that Pilch isn't so sure of his Lojban, why doesn't he post a short example in English to the list (pointing out how ambiguities should be resolved) then any interested party can have a go at a Lojban translation. co'o mi'e robin.