English translation of my Saturday message

[think.com!gls (Guy Steele)]

   Date: 12 Dec 89 21:27:32 EST (Tue)
   From: eric@snark.uu.net

   >> samjulne  computer network for purpose ... using carrier ...
   >
   >No, "julne" means a net like for catching fish or bugs.  Besides,
   >"samjulne" would have to have the same structure as "julne".

   The whole point of tanru construction is that lujvo may have meanings
   that are *metaphorically* rather than literally related to the roots. Note
   that the x2 place of the gismu julne is "for purpose" not "for catching".

Allow me to suggest, however, that the metaphor implicit in the English (as
opposed to Lojban) use of the word "network" is not entirely apropos.  The
kind of net used to catch fish and the kind of net used to connect
computers are both more or less physical embodiments of a mathematical
graph: a set of points some pairs of which are connected by lines or arcs.
However, the important properties of the graphs are quite different in the
two cases.  For catching a fish, geometrical structure and relative
homogeneity are important; the idea is that the holes (cycles) of the
network are small enough that for some purposes the graph behaves as if it
were a two-dimensional structure that can contain a physical object, and
yet liquids or much smaller objects can leak through.  In the case of a
computer network geometrical properties are of almost no interest at all;
what matters is connectivity (a topological but not geometrical property)
and the bandwidth of the arcs rather than the size of the holes.

In general, one must be careful to re-examine the metaphors underlying
English compound words before using them to form Lojban words.

So I would suggest that one build the Lojban word for "computer network" on
a metaphor more akin to "graphwork" than "network".  I might expect it to
have a place structure more akin to

   x1 is a computer-connectivity-means connecting set of computers x2
	by means of carrier (or technology) x3 for purpose x4

the point being that to define a graph one ought first to mention the
set of nodes and the set of arcs.  I would expect to synthesize this
from words for "computer" and "connectivity-means", which latter might
be primitive or might be built from the ideas of "mathematical graph"
and "physical embodiment or means".  (Alternatively, the term for a
mathematical graph might be built from "connectivity means" and
"abstract or ideal"--what has been previous practice here?)

  ARPANET samfubar ARPA-contractor-computers leased-phone-lines all-around-hacking

One might expect the words "fishnet" and "sieve" to be more closely related
in Lojban than they are in English.

--Guy Steele

P.S.  If you look in the Oxford English Dictionary you will find that
"email" is actually an English word, now obsolete, hundreds of years old.
The participial form "emailed" describes an object that has been given the
form or impression of "mail" (as in chain mail armor).  The OED describes
this as "having the form or appearance of a net work".  Very curious that
"email" and "network" should be linked six hundred years ago, and then
again now under a very different metaphor.