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Semantic precision
- To: John Cowan <cowan@snark.thyrsus.com>
- Subject: Semantic precision
- From: CJ FINE <cbmvax!uunet!bradford.ac.uk!C.J.Fine>
- Reply-To: cbmvax!uunet!bradford.ac.uk!C.J.Fine
- Sender: Lojban list <cbmvax!uunet!pucc.princeton.edu!LOJBAN>
As I look through translations in JL or on the net, I quite often think
"I don't like that choice of gismu, because that's not what its
arguments mean". It's happening so often that I am beginning to wonder
whether I'm just being over-precise.
Some examples:
facki "discover ... about ..."
- it seems to me that this means 'find out' and not 'find'. If
you want 'find', you need "facki le stuzi da"
djuno "know ... about ..."
- I would not use this for 'know a person' or even 'know a
word'. With that definition, a seldjuno must be a (potential) fact
zdile "amusing to ... in ..."
- does this mean 'is funny to' or 'occupies ... pleasantly'?
They are different, I believe, and I thought that the 'funny'
meaning was right: but in JL10 Sylvia - and lojbab - used
'zdile' to translate 'drawing room'.
opinions?
kolin