Subject: Re: [lojban] Rosetta Project Genesis translation (was Re: Fw: Call for contri...

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:42:09 EDT

In a message dated 5/23/2001 3:42:09 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> Okay, I see this translation referring to {loi danlu} and calling it a
> "massified singular", glossing it as "Mr. Beast". I've seen this referred 
> to in
> a few other old lojban discussions (but only once in the time I've been on 
> the
> list). What the heck does this mean?
> 
I haven't gotten to the details yet, but this one of those recurring 
discussions: What does {loi broda} mean? The short answer is "the mass of 
all lo broda," but that proves to be ignotum per ignotius and leads to 
various stories about what a mass is. One of these (Quine or Trobriand 
Islanders?) is that the mass is an individual, each what we would call 
individual broda, is merely a manifestation of that individual (I think this 
may owe something to Christian theology, too), Mr. Broda. Another view is 
that a mass is a kind of goo and each individual is a piece of that goo. Yet 
another is that a mass is a team of some sort. And there are several other 
tales, which I am trying to pull up out of the archives and put into some 
semblance of order for my (curiouser and curiouser as I "correct" problems) 
website.
Reminders of these would be very welcome.