From jcowan@reutershealth.com Fri Jan 12 08:33:04 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: jcowan@reutershealth.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@egroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-6_3_1_3); 12 Jan 2001 16:33:04 -0000 Received: (qmail 69715 invoked from network); 12 Jan 2001 16:28:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 12 Jan 2001 16:28:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail.reutershealth.com) (204.243.9.36) by mta1 with SMTP; 12 Jan 2001 16:28:04 -0000 Received: from reutershealth.com (IDENT:cowan@[192.168.3.11]) by mail.reutershealth.com (Pro-8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA16699; Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:29:45 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3A5F300D.20908@reutershealth.com> Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:25:49 -0500 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux 2.2.16-22 i686; en-US; m18) Gecko/20001107 Netscape6/6.0 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: fchauvet@aol.com Cc: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Some remarks from a beginner References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: John Cowan fchauvet@aol.com wrote: > 1) [...] How can you keep a "natural" structure? I > mean, "focus" first, then the other parameters? Using se, te, etc. changes the form of the central relation. Using fa, fe, fi, etc. allows you to rearrange arguments at will. > 2) The idea of a (potentially) four-dimensional referential seems > nonsense to me, at least until mankind be able to time-travel. > What about aspect, which is a purely timelike structure? With a 4D > referential, you should have the notions of "beginning", "continuing" > and "ending" in space as well as in time. We do. Using fe'e in front of an aspect particle makes it a space aspect particle. > 3) I've been (pleasantly) striked by the fact that there are about > 2,000 gismu. [...] [I]s it a consequence of the "mankindness" > of Lojban conceptors? Yes. The list evolved from 1955 to 1995, roughly, being added to over time. Unnecessary terms were removed once in 1988. > 4) [...] When reading, signs such as semicolon, colon, > interrogation, and so on, do replace the mimics or intonation of > the locutor. Why not use them, even if unnecessary in spoken language? You are free to use punctuation marks (other than . and ,) as additions to the text proper. For example, a question may end with a ? if you like; another approach is to prefix it to the question word itself. > a) Is there a "thematic" gismu dictionary? I mean, most gismu's fit into > families with the > same place structure: x1 is an animal of species , x1 is made of > , ... See http://www.lojban.org/files/wordlists/roget . The codes correspond to the divisions of Roget's Thesaurus, the standard English-language thematic dictionary, available online at ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext91/roget15a.txt -- There is / one art || John Cowan no more / no less || http://www.reutershealth.com to do / all things || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan with art- / lessness \\ -- Piet Hein > > not) : you normally grasp several lines at a glance, and then > mentally parse them. This is why line- or word- breaks are not a > difficulty. You are free to use punctuation marks (other than . and ,) as additions to the main text. For example, a question may end with a ? if you like; another approach is to prefix it to the question word itself. > a) Is there a "thematic" gismu dictionary? I mean, most gismu's fit > into families with the same place structure: x1 is an animal of > species , x1 is made of , ... This would greatly > help in learning Lojban. I started to compile one, but I do not > have enough time. See > b) It http://www.lojban.org/files/wordlists/roget seems that Lojban's grammar is regularly updated (although it > essentially remains the same). What is the way to be kept informed > about these evolutions? > > Thank you all, and happy new year (should be Year I of my reign, but > my doctor said I am *not* paranoid) :-) > > To unsubscribe, send mail to lojban-unsubscribe@onelist.com -- There is / one art || John Cowan no more / no less || http://www.reutershealth.com to do / all things || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan with art- / lessness \\ -- Piet Hein