Subject: [lojban] Re: nai in UI (was: BPFK phpbb)

From: "And Rosta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 02:31:49 +0100

If anyone replies to this, I will send any followup to Jboske.

Craig:
> >A parser that passes nonsense is nonsense 
> 
> Like the internal one in your mind? Colorless green ideas sleep furiously?
> Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe? Both of
> these are nonsense, and yet both are grammatical. 

The Chomsky ex isn't nonsense -- it is merely surreal & doesn't cohere
very straightforwardly with out experience of the world.

> So is Lojban's "ko'a kau
> nai kau ca kau na kau ka'e kau broda kau". I see no reason why this matters 
> No simpler alternative to kau being a UI has yet prsented itself 

I have no problem with the Formal Grammar or Official Parser passing
nonsense. But any truly well-formed sentence of Lojban must be meaningful,
however silly or surreal that meaning is. A true parser will recognize
which strings are and aren't meaningful. A parser that ignores meaning
is nonsense, in the sense that it produces nothing useful. 

--And.