response to Jimc on dikyjvo 12/8/91

[Logical Language Group <cbmvax!uunet!GREBYN.COM!pucc.PRINCETON.EDU!lojbab>]

Jimc writes:
>In wannabe-soldier, the tanru is sonci djica, the lujvo is soidji, and
>in both forms you are supposed to interpret the phrase as "x1 djica
>lodu'u x1 sonci".  The rule for interpretation comes as part of the
>definition of djica -- for this and about 350 other words, there are
>particular common patterns of usage where containing bridi arguments get
>replicated into abstract sumti (and non-abstract ones too!) in ways that
>vary with the individual word.  Actually there are only a few patterns
>repeated over and over, but there are enough exceptions in the place
>structures I have built that I found it useful to annotate the words
>individually.

Jim chose a good example as to why I dislike dikyjvo.  WHY must "sonci
djica" 'mean' "djica ledu'u sonci"?  Why can't it 'mean' "djica lo
sonci"?  (a military camp follower, perhaps), or lo djica poi sonci (the
soldier in the foxhole, yearning for home, beloved, and a steak dinner)?

The tanru COULD mean any of those, and a bunch of other things besides.
It is only pragmatics (real world knowledge) that might let us determine
which of the possible meanings is most plausible for a given context.
Thus, to exercise Lojban as a 'logical' language, you would probably
avoid tanru.

Now when you choose one of these tanru to be the meaning for the lujvo,
which one do you choose.  I contend that again, it takes real world
knowledge that cannot be enshrined in a simple algorithm.  I personally
would NOT use soidji for "wanna-be soldier" because that is not what
comes to mind with no context.  I can't say why - it is instinctive.  A
couple of reasons might be a) that the camp follower meaning seems
equally likely for conversation, b) that pattern matching suggests that
noun+desire more commonly means "desires noun", not "desires becoming
noun" and this holds even when the 'noun' is a person (I would not
expect ninmu-djica woman-desire to mean desire becoming a woman - I
would more likely expect it to mean a desirer of women, or a woman who
desires something) or c) that "wannabe-soldier" just seems too odd a
concept to justify giving it a 2-term lujvo when it is uncommon in use,
and there are other plausible interpretations.  I would thus use
sonbi'odji (soldier-become-desire).

lojbab