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Re: Dvorak (& Lojban)
> On a different topic: I am quite concerned by the recent discussion on
> this list about the difference in opinion about what certain phrases
> mean in Lojban. Although I'm not able to follow the specifics (yet), it
> appears that it is not at all obvious what certain phrases mean,
> particularly when relating to abstractions (but again, I don't have a
> clue what the specific ideas being discussed are). All I'm
> understanding right now that there are ideas which should be simple to
> express, but are not in fact easy to express in Lojban. Well I
> currently know English, and (possibly with some difficulty) I can
> express anything I want. It might be awkward, but I can express it.
> The whole point behind wanting to learn Lojban is that expressions will
> be easier and more logical. If the language doesn't do this, then it
> has no advantage over English. What's going on here?
Two points: (1) The existence of disagreement about what certain
constructs actually mean does not necessarily imply that either meaning
was "difficult to express". It's very simple and obvious for me to
say {li piso'i ni ma'a tavla fi le sidbo} "we've talked a lot about
abstractions", and easy for most to understand it; it's just that
others may disagree on exactly what it means or whether it is strictly
grammatical (in the type-safety sense; it parses grammatically).
And (2) "ease of expression" is not the only, or even primary, goal
of creating Loglan. While we don't want it to be unreasonably hard
to say ordinary things, a bit of difficulty in saying other things is
OK in exchange for the ability to say them clearly and unambiguously
in ways that natural languages cannot.
--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC