From arosta@uclan.ac.uk Mon Jun 25 08:13:03 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: arosta@uclan.ac.uk X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_1_3); 25 Jun 2001 15:13:03 -0000 Received: (qmail 60602 invoked from network); 25 Jun 2001 15:12:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 25 Jun 2001 15:12:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO com1.uclan.ac.uk) (193.61.255.3) by mta1 with SMTP; 25 Jun 2001 15:12:31 -0000 Received: from gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk by com1.uclan.ac.uk with SMTP (Mailer); Mon, 25 Jun 2001 15:52:26 +0100 Received: from DI1-Message_Server by gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk with Novell_GroupWise; Mon, 25 Jun 2001 16:15:18 +0100 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 16:14:57 +0100 To: lojban Subject: Re: [lojban] RE: Rabbity Sand-Laugher Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline From: And Rosta John: #And Rosta scripsit: # #> > John Cowan, Underspecificator #>=20 #> You were the Documenter, not the Specificator. # #You think Lojban is underspecified now, before the Codex it was hopelessly #underspecified. I was forever pursuing Bob (and others, but mostly Bob) #with "And what is this syntax supposed to mean?" I know, but:you asked Bob, instead of making up your own answer, and then documented his answer,. Anyway, I happily acknowledge that your efforts served to increase the=20 specification by a large factor, but it remains massively underspecified. Once upona time, Before Codex, we would have debated issues when they arose, then come to some resolution, and then thanks to your diligence, documented it. Nowadays we either come to a resolution that remains undocumented or else do not reach a resolution. Many unresolved issues (such as the grammar of anaphora) are never going to get resolved by usage, unless in the indirect manner whereby=20 Jorge makes up grammar to fill some underspecified gaps so as to resolves these issues to his personal satisfaction, uses the language accordingly, and then inspires others to follow his usage. --And.