Subject: Re: [lojban] More stuff

From: Robert LeChevalier <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2002 16:06:57 -0500

Earlier today I posted in response to Nick a hierarchy of lesser to greater 
changes to the baseline. Nora said that it came out unreadable to her 
because of the line wrapping, so I'm reposting that portion with more care 
taken.

...
For baseline changes, I think there is a hierarchy of stability, and for 
any part of the language definition, we want to think multiple times before 
elevating the to a higher level of change consideration, because opening 
the door to one change invites other changes at the same level and sooner 
or later you won't recognize the language.

Lowest to highest

1 typo correction

2 clarification that does not contradict a viable denotation of the 
existing definition

3 clarification that basically admits I/we chose poor wording so that the 
denotation of the existing definition is misleading (rewording a gismu 
definition)

4 splitting of a word into two words to resolve polysemy

5 addition of a new word not justified by polysemy on a currently 
unassigned cmavo (or adding a single line YACC grammar rule that changes no 
others, e.g. CAhA+NAI, adding a place to place structure)

6 deleting an assigned cmavo because it is useless (deleting a place from 
place structure, or a gismu)

7 addition of a new word reusing such a deassigned cmavo (seems much higher 
than using an unassigned cmavo - I would support using xVV before 
reassigning tei even if tei is deleted (changing a place structure other 
than simple addition or deletion)

Note that while deleting a cmavo, deleting a place from a place structure, 
or gismu are all listed as level 6, the hierarchy for each area has a 
different level of assumed stability, so deleting an apparently useless 
cmavo should be a little easier than deleting a useless gismu or place 
structure.

lojbab

-- 
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org