Subject: lujvo & tanru

From: Invent Yourself <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 14:39:06 -0400 (EDT)

On Fri, 25 Aug 2000, michael helsem wrote:

> >From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <[email-masked]>
> li'o
> >until we
> >have committed sufficient lexicon to paper
> 
> there are 2 related fallacies here. first, that because RARNYBAU have SO'I 
> VALSI & LA LOJBAN doesn't, we need to go madly about CNINO FINTI LE LUJVO 
> for every ZE'I SE JINVI that pops into one's STEDU.

Have I said yet that I suspect that "true" Lojbanic style might include
extremely long tanru? Perhaps it is malglico, or in any case non-Lojbanic,
to desire small words with poignancy. Perhaps the spirit of Lojban is to
achieve such shades of meaning not by relying on a huge, historical,
subtle vocabulary, but by constructing detailed nuanced tanru on the spot.

By "true" of course I mean trying to go where the internal logic
and flow of the language takes us, rather than trying to aim it in a
pre-declared direction. The existence and beauty of ke and bo hint and
encourage us to take tanru in a direction that English doesn't want to.

A tendency in this direction would address the Great Dictionary Problem,
and give us some SW effects by providing us with a new, rather poetic,
dynamic skill. In English we pause for a moment and try to recall the One
Right Word, whereas perhaps in Lojban we should pause for a moment and
construct a monstrous tanru with kes and bos. Unstacking ke and bo might
be an easier skill then de-lujvo-izing, recalling rafsi, and figuring out
the place structure of an unfamiliar lujvo.

Whatever the case may be, since this is a very un-Englishistic habit, I
think I will try to develop it!

----- [email-masked] on design: How do you get there, do a lot of hard
work, breathe, and listen listen listen. Listen to what the product tells
you. Sometimes, if you're really good at listening, you can hear it speak.
Do what it says and shut up.