Kennaway on speaker's intent

[cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!lojbab (Bob LeChevalier)]

Kennaway:
>the speaker's meaning is, fundamentally, whatever the speaker intends to mean

This is fundamentally wrong in an unambiguous language.  The actual words used
should be interpreted based on their grammar.  If interpolation is permitted,
then a fundamental goal of Loglan, to be able to speak nonsense and have it
understood AS SPOKEN is defeated.  I note that this is reiterated in one
article of the new Lognet (a publication of the Loglan Institute) that arrived
just today, so this is true of both versions of Loglan, Lojban and the Institute
language.

In communication it is the speakers obligation to put things in terms that the 
listener will understand, not the listeners job to figure out what the speaker
intended.  After all, context may be know to the speaker that isi not known
to the listener.  The speaker must provide sufficient context to make his
meaning plain.

In an idiomatic request like "Do you know what time it is?", there is an
unspoken and implied question.  But the implication of that question is an
English idiom - aculturally-based association.  If Loglan is to be culturally
neutral, it must avoid copying English idioms (especially English idioms 
because the language was invented by English speakers).  It is especially bad
when the idiomatic phrase has an obvious non-nonsense meaning.  How, if Richard
is correct, would you ask the real question "Do you know what time it is?"

The propoer answer in both versions of the language is to either ask
"what is the time?" or "Tell me the time", which in Lojban can be attitudinally
softened with ".e'o" into a request instead of a command imperative.

Yes the listener can answer anything he wants to any question or statement,
as in:

Do you know what time it is?
George.

But this is not communicative.

It is true that if the listener responds to the yes/no question with the time
that this is an implicit statement that he knows the time - so it is an answer.
----
lojbab = Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
         2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA
         703-385-0273
         lojbab@snark.thyrsus.com