Re: ni

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>In computer terms, knowing that function1(arg1, arg2) is in the
>correct syntax doesn't tell me what the function does; for that I need
>not only a description of the function but some idea of what kinds of
>arguments it expects and what it will do with them.  Even in a "loosely
>typed" language like Lojban (where any argument can syntactically fit
>into any place), I still need to know what arguments are /expected/
>to know how to call the function.
>
>So the question becomes, what kinds of arguments are expected in the
>function call {xy. ni broda zy.}?  Maybe saying "a quantity" and
>"a scale for that quantity" is sufficent definition, and if we fill
>it with either a number or an abstraction, so be it.  But if that
>causes other problems (and I'm not sure that it does, but I still
>suspect so}, then maybe we need to be clearer.

Maybe we do, but I suspect that until we get people actually trying to
communicate in the language a lot more, we won't be able to tell what
constructions are "sufficiently clear".  In particular we know that
whatever the semantics are of function1(arg1, arg2), in Lojban if we want
something that uses arg3 with a particular semantics to it, there will be
SOME way to add in that arg3, and if we want a differnet flavor of arg2,
or even to leave out arg2, we can do that also.  It isn;t instinctive to us
NOW how to do this kind of thing - I suspect that it will be one of the
early tricks that gets mastered.  I've had ways of doing so myself that
I hone through ad hoc usage, but until I get in a position to use the language
heavily, my own ad hockeries will not necessarily prove convincing to
anyone else.  But I think they WILL be settled by usage much more quickly
than by debate.  Then after we get more usage history, we will be in a
position to
more intelligently deabte and seek general solutions.  But that is what we
mean by having only promised a 5 year baseline.  It may very well take that
long before we knwo the language well enough to go to the next level of
semantics specification, and I do not presume to say how Lojbanists of 5 years
from now will see the problems or their solutions.

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                        703-385-0273
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