Talk:BPFK style guidelines for Lojban dictionary definitions (proposal draft)

• Each meaning definition should be clear, easy and comfortable to read for everyone, and not cluttered with slashes, obscure abbreviations or anything else hindering readability or comprehension. Lists of appropriate translations or glosses are preferably put into a dedicated dictionary entry field, separate from the main definition.
  • This can't be done for complex terms describing math, physics etc.La Gleki (talk) 01:27, 26 djulio 2015 (PDT)
• Each meaning definition should be simple, made from simple terms, even if that leads to more verbosity.
  • This immediately leads to the problem of where to put synonyms. We can remove "combine" from the definition of jmina considering it not a simple word but then newcomers will ask "how to say "combine" in Lojban?" and they won't have this opportinity to search for this word. This problem can be solved by changing the database model allowing for production of Natlang=>Lojban dictionaries. This will also stop unproductive way of relexing English in Lojban via creating zillions of new brivla.
  • Also it's highly subjective what is simple and what is not. La Gleki (talk) 01:27, 26 djulio 2015 (PDT)
• The appropriate gloss words are recorded in the gloss fields.
  • I'd rather shut down glossword completely. They lead to complete confusion of newcomers who start thinking that {mlatu} means "cat" whereas instead it means "to be a cat". {mi viska mlatu} is a normal consequence of this glossword system. Instead, a natlang-specific system has to be developed. For most SAE language this is just solved by creating two types of translations: for verbs and for nouns. {lo mlatu} becomes a noun, {mlatu} becomes a verb. Again this is about Natlang=>Lojban dictionary, it shouldn't have any relation to the current JVS's Lojban=>Natlang direction as the only option.La Gleki (talk) 01:27, 26 djulio 2015 (PDT)
• The etymologies are presented along with the definition in order to help retaining the term and its origin.
  • Completely disagree. They should be presented along with meaning. Why should we copy etymology for every definition in every language??? More on this: https://github.com/lojban/jbovlaste/issues/131 La Gleki (talk) 01:27, 26 djulio 2015 (PDT)
• The various sumti types must be specified between parentheses: proposition (du'u), event (nu), property/relation (ka), quantity (ni)…
  • If so these parentheses must be used only for sumti types and nothing else and come immediately after "xN"
  • But it's better to have a constructor thus making definitions explicitly cut into chunks like it's done in La Bangu dictionary La Gleki (talk) 01:27, 26 djulio 2015 (PDT)