From njs@uclink4.berkeley.edu Thu Aug 23 12:43:53 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: njs@njs.ddts.net X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_1); 23 Aug 2001 19:43:53 -0000 Received: (qmail 1018 invoked from network); 23 Aug 2001 19:40:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l8.egroups.com with QMQP; 23 Aug 2001 19:40:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO WyrmWeyr.frop.org) (169.229.89.124) by mta1 with SMTP; 23 Aug 2001 19:40:59 -0000 Received: from njs by WyrmWeyr.frop.org with local (Exim 3.22 #1 (Debian)) id 15a0Lb-0001bZ-00 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2001 12:40:59 -0700 Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 12:40:58 -0700 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: status of ka (was Re: [lojban] x3 of du' Message-ID: <20010823124058.A6160@njs.dhis.org> Mail-Followup-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.18i Sender: Nathaniel Smith From: Nathaniel Smith On Wed, Aug 22, 2001 at 10:03:53PM -0400, John Cowan wrote: > Nick NICHOLAS scripsit: > > > I think lambda calculus is the bomb, and wonderful, and it would > > be great to use it in the metalanguage of Lojban. > > English dialect alert (though the context carries it here)! > > In North America, "bomb" means figuratively a catastrophic failure, > rather than a great success. English dialect? I've spent my whole life in California, and have Nick's meaning for "bomb" in my dialect just fine. (Generally, "bomb" as a verb seems to mean "to fail", while "the bomb" is something good, cool, great, etc.) Incidentally, lambda calculus _is_ the bomb. ;-) -- Nathaniel -- "...these, like all words, have single, decontextualized meanings: everyone knows what each of these words means, everyone knows what constitutes an instance of each of their referents. Language is fixed. Meaning is certain. Santa Claus comes down the chimney at midnight on December 24." -- The Language War, Robin Lakoff