Subject: Re: [lojban] lojban audial recognition etc.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 17:20:41 EST

In a message dated 3/27/2001 2:02:47 PM Central Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> BTW, IMHO one reason for new Lojban-interested people getting bored off and
> leaving again might be long philosophical threads of 
> the DJUNO/KRICI kind - whereas basic vocabulary to express ourselves is 
> still missing or at least not at all obvious! (like: 
> "already"/"still", "not yet"/"no longer" etc. - Don't remember the old 
> thread about this topic, which - as far I recall - had no real 
> conclusion: naza'o/za'onai ???)
Shouldn't we better leave the ivory tower and turn toward people instead of
> "linguistic" 
> specialties as sort of an oblivious and eccentric navel gazing?
> 
Yes, but... those "ivory tower discussions" get started precisely because 
people have practical problems about how to say bip or what they have 
actually said when they say boo. We don't just pick these topics out of the 
air; they arise out of real problems. And they continue until something like 
a real solution is reached. We may (and in the case of {djuno} have) revive 
a topic from time to time to see if the solution still works in new 
environments or to clarify unnoticed (or forgotten) aspects of the solution. 
The content of the discussion may get technical or polyglot or abstract, but 
the motivation is always ultimately practical.