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Number 15 - August-September 1991 Copyright 1991, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031 USA (703)385-0273 Permission granted to copy, without charge to recipient, when for purpose of promotion of Loglan/Lojban. First International Correspondence JL to Become Subscription Journal Lojban List Moves Details Inside, and More. ju'i lobypli (JL) is the quarterly journal of The Logical Language Group, Inc., known in these pages as la lojbangirz. la lojbangirz. is a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of completing and spreading the logical human language "Lojban - A Realization of Loglan" (commonly called "Lojban"), and informing the community about logical languages in general. For purposes of terminology, "Lojban" refers to a specific version of a logical human language, the generic language and associated research project having been called "Loglan" since its invention by Dr. James Cooke Brown in 1954. Statements referring to "Loglan/Lojban" refer to both the generic language and to Lojban as a specific instance of that language. The Lojban version of Loglan was created as an alternative because Dr. Brown and his organization claims copyright on everything in his version, including each individual word of the vocabulary. The Lojban vocabulary and grammar and all language definition materials, by contrast, are public domain. Anyone may freely use Lojban for any purpose without permission or royalty. la lojbangirz. believes that such free usage is a necessary condition for an engineered language like Loglan/Lojban to become a true human language, and to succeed in the various goals that have been proposed for its use. la lojbangirz. is a non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Your donations (not contributions to your voluntary balance) are tax-deductible on U.S. and most state income taxes. Donors are notified at the end of each year of their total deductible donations. Page count this issue: 88+2 enclosures ($9.00 North America, $10.80 elsewhere). Press run for this issue of ju'i lobypli: 275. We now have about 620 people on our active mailing list, and 240 more awaiting textbook publication. Your Mailing Label Your mailing label reports your current mailing status, and your current voluntary balance including this issue. Please notify us of changes in your activity/interest level. Balances reflect 2 contributions received thru 31 August 1991. Mailing codes (and approximate balance needs) are: Activity/Interest Level: Highest Package Received (Price Each) Other flags: B - Observer 0 - Introductory Materials ($5) JL JL Subscription ($25/yr) C - Active Supporter 1 - Word Lists and Language Description ($15) LK LK Subscription ($5/yr) D - Lojban Student 2 - Language Design Information ($10) R Review Copy (no charge) E - Lojban Practitioner 3 - Draft Teaching Materials ($30) UP Automatic Updates (>$20) Please keep us informed of changes in your mailing address, and US subscribers are asked to provide ZIP+4 codes whenever you know them. 3 Contents of This Issue Important: Due to financial constraints, ju'i lobypli will be fully converting to a subscription basis over the next few issues. Be sure to read the financial news section if you wish to keep receiving ju'i lobypli. We got a lot accomplished in the months leading up to LogFest, and several major decisions were made at that meeting. See the news section. la lojbangirz. has made its first research proposal, to the U. S. defense agency DARPA, and also has attended its first linguistics conference. See the news section. This issue contains a lot of material derived from the Lojban List computer mailing list on the Internet. Nearly all such material has been edited, revised, and corrected from the original. Included are discussions of grammar points, some more on Lojban and linguistics, and a LOT of Lojban text. I have Lojban text material from over a dozen people to choose from for this issue, and it is tough to choose. Some will be saved for JL16. Table of Contents News Finances ---3 Logfest 91 ---5 Lojban List Moves / Electronic Distribution Policy ---7 Language Development Activities ---8 Using the Language --10 Research and Linguistics --11 Products Status, Prices, and Ordering --12 International News --15 Publicity; News From the Institute --16 New Loglans --17 le lojbo se ciska --18, 26, 42, 47, 57, 65 Is Lojban Scientifically Interesting? --20 Summary of gismu/rafsi Official Changes --23 Cleft Place Structures and sumti-Raising --32 Versions of the Theory of Linguistic Relativity --42 On Loglan and Lojban Elidables --47 A History and Description of le'avla in Loglan and Lojban --50 The Culture gismu Revisited: Cultural Neutrality and the gismu List --53 Grammar Notes: On Observatives; Predications and Identities --61 How to Say It - A New Regular? Feature --63 Translations of le lojbo se ciska --79 Computer Net Information Via Usenet/UUCP/Internet, you can send messages and text files (including things for JL publication) to la lojbangirz./Bob at: lojbab@grebyn.com (This is a new address and supersedes the prior "snark" address.) You can also join the Lojban List mailing list (currently around 80 subscribers). Send a single line message (automatically processed) containing only: "subscribe lojban yourfirstname yourlastname" to: listserv@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu If you have problems needing human intervention, send to: 4 lojban-list- request@snark.thyrsus.com Send traffic for the mailing list to: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu Please keep us informed if your network mailing address changes. Compuserve subscribers can also participate. Precede any of the above addresses with INTERNET: and use your normal Compuserve mail facility. If you want to participate on Lojban List, you should be prepared to read your mail at least every couple of days; otherwise your mailbox fills up and you are dropped from the mailing-list. FIDOnet subscribers can also participate, although the connection is not especially robust. Write to us for details if you don't know how to access the Internet network. Whether you wish to participate in the news-group or not, it is useful for us to know your Compuserve or Usenet/Internet address. 5 We've been requested to more chances - we have to pay the explicitly identify people who bills. are referred to by initials in We've found that a high per- JL, and will regularly do so in centage of people specifically this spot, immediately before theordering material from us news section. Note that contribute money to pay for it. 'Athelstan' is that person's realIt is ju'i lobypli and le lojbo name, used in his public life, karni, which we send people and is not a pseudonym. without a specific prepaid order, that people do not contribute 'pc' - Dr. John Parks-Clifford,enough to cover. Our financial Professor of Logic and Philosophytracking system finally improved at the University of Missouri - to the point where we could St. Louis and Vice-President of identify this situation. la lojbangirz.; he is usually Yet ju'i lobypli is what people addressed as 'pc' by the provide most feedback on, a community. product that people clearly like. 'Bob', 'lojbab' - Bob The answer, it seems, is to put LeChevalier - President of la JL on a prepaid, specific order lojbangirz., and editor of ju'i basis. Then, presumably, those lobypli and le lojbo karni. of you who want JL will tell us 'Nora' - Nora LeChevalier - so with your checkbooks and Secretary/Treasurer of la credit cards. lojbangirz., Bob's wife, author This solution engenders its own of LogFlash. new problems. We can presume 'JCB', 'Dr. Brown'- Dr. James that not every JL subscriber will Cooke Brown, inventor of the subscribe if they have to pay for language, and founder of the it in full and in advance. But Loglan project. if we drop significantly below 'The Institute', 'TLI' - The 200 U.S. addressees, we lose our Loglan Institute, Inc., JCB's reduced 3rd class bulk rates in organization for spreading his postage. This reduction amounts version of Loglan, which we call to about $2 per copy, or $400 per 'Institute Loglan'. issue. So, if by reducing our 'Loglan' - This refers to the subscriber list for JL does not generic language or language save us at least $400, we are project, of which 'Lojban' is themerely serving less people for most successful version, and the same amount of money. We Institute Loglan another. thus find that there is a gap 'Loglan/Lojban' is used in between about 140 and 200 U.S. discussions about Lojban where wesubscribers where we lose as much wish to make it particularly or more money than when we send clear that the statement applies to additional people who are not to the generic language as well. paying. We suspect that going to a prepaid subscription basis will News put us in the middle of that interval. Finances Going to a fully paid basis also makes it more difficult for We may have gotten momentarily students, people out-of-work, and overconfident in JL14, after low-income Lojbanists to get JL. raising a nice amount of money Yet these subscribers are among with our fund-raising letter lastour most productive volunteers, fall. Unfortunately, since that and have been more likely to fund-raiser, income has been spend the time and effort to lower than the already depressed start learning Lojban. Non-U.S levels before the letter. We aresubscribers are also hurt, having hoping that this is due only to a higher price to pay, but often the recession, but cannot take having a lower income because of their country's economy. 6 Finally, reducing our the hoops and see whether we subscriber list reduces our could do so if it proves finan- outreach - our ability to attractcially necessary. new people and get them involved in learning and using Lojban. Thus, at LogFest 91, we decided People who buy our products oftenon the following steps: learn about them through seeing how others use them productively 1. JL will be converted to a in JL. prepaid subscription basis over a Fortunately, there is one period of around a year. If this option that may eliminate the means that we lose bulk rate, so bubble. In going to prepaid sub-be it. Price will be $20- scriptions, we may be able to $25/year, payable in advance. become a 'legitimate' periodical People with negative balances qualifying for U.S. Second Class will be cut off (switched to le (Periodical) postage rates. lojbo karni), unless supported Second Class doesn't require the either by volunteer credits (see 200 minimum mailing that our below) or by direct donation by current bulk rate permit does, another person. has even lower rates per piece, 2. The first step will be a and offers faster and more fund-raiser and direct-mail certain delivery than bulk rate announcement of the new policy in mailings. the next month or two. Every However, to establish subscriber to JL will be sent a legitimacy, we have to prove thatform to be signed and returned our readers WANT to receive our indicating that you want to publication. We can prove this receive JL, and a signature line either with formal audit will be added to our order form. procedures (which we cannot If not signed and returned and afford), or through having on you have a negative balance, you file explicit requests from each will be dropped as a JL of our subscribers. The latter subscriber, but will receive LK must be signed and dated, or we instead. If you have a positive must have other proof that the balance, we still need you to re- request is bona fide (such as turn the form to qualify for 2nd electronic mail headers and class mailing. addresses). The postal service 3. Thereafter, the negative will audit us at least once a balance cutoff for JL subscribers year, and they check carefully. will be raised each issue, and A side benefit/penalty people not making the cut will be (depending on whether you are thedropped to an LK subscription. reader or the editor) is that 2ndWe will give people a one issue class periodicals MUST be advance notice of cutoff. For published regularly, and at leastthose with very negative quarterly, so that JL would be balances, you will be able to coming out every 3 months with noavoid the cutoff by explicitly slips like we've been making subscribing and sending a signed, lately. paid order for JL. A final factor is that it costs There will be no exceptions. $275 just to apply for a 2nd Some of you with very negative class permit, so we must have allbalances may wish to decide what of our procedures in place BEFOREyou want your status to be, and we apply. possibly to negotiate with We haven't decided for sure to someone or with us to continue to go to 2nd class mailing - the receive issues. If you have done rigor may be more than we can things for us, including active handle with one full-time worker,participation on Lojban List such me, who has other things to do that we use your material in JL, besides publish JL. But we are you can possibly negotiate going to start jumping through delayed payment or a partial 7 amount to be paid to zero out should contact to request such your balance. We ask however assistance in your company, to that for those who can afford to,let us know. We will also be you pay most or all of your directly seeking out ideas and balances off so that we can help information from a couple of you out others who cannot. whom people have recommended that We do not intend to drop LK we specifically ask. subscribers until the books are We are seeking donations, done, except upon request. It probably in the $1000-$15000 isn't feasible to put LK on a range, to support specific or subscription basis, because the general research projects in response rate to our mailings is Lojban applications, and also to so low. support publication of the 4. Given the cutback, we hope textbook and dictionary in that our financial condition amounts large enough to keep the improves to the point that we price down and allow wide have a surplus. If so, the distribution. Specifically from following plan will aid the ones companies that manufacture and who cannot pay for subscriptions sell computers, we also are and other materials. seeking unrestricted donations of A 'volunteer credit' donation one or two small machines. Unre- fund will be set up. People who stricted donation means that we donate can specify donations for could use or sell the machine - general expenses, or specificallyselling it to get money for for this fund. In addition, a support or using it for research specific portion of any excess purposes. Two machines would revenues (profits) will be put inallow us to sell one and keep this fund. one. Donation of machines to la A committee will accept lojbangirz. apparently benefits recommendations of people who such companies more than direct have contributed in a wide cash donations. Again, ideas are variety of ways from commentary welcome in this area. on JL, learning the language, One such donation will greatly participation on Lojban List, ease our month to month financial recruiting, overseas activities. pressure. A larger donation or They will also get a list from memore smaller ones would allow us each issue of people whose to make intelligent financial balance is less than the decisions on how to complete our subscription cutoff, along with projects and to get serious notes on any special research started, without the circumstances that might allow distorting effect of living hand- them to be retained as JL sub- to-mouth. Please help if you scribers. The committee will can. allocate the funds among the pos- 6. We plan to establish a sible recipients, so as to allow 'Sustaining Membership' similar the maximum number to be retainedto other non-profit organiza- as JL subscribers. tions. Probably costing 5. We will seek direct $50/year, the benefits will be donations of larger amounts of minimal - perhaps acknowledgement money from companies, especially in our books, periodicals, and from computer companies who mightour annual reports, perhaps a 10% profit by the positive image of or 20% discount on purchases, and supporting non-profit scientific higher priority on orders and and educational research with services. The main 'benefit' computer applications. We are will be knowing you are helping asking ALL subscribers associatedmake Lojban a success. Details with a company who might be will be announced. willing to help support us, and 7. Finally, we have gotten a who either have some influence inlocal computer network account such decisions, or know who we 8 which will significantly cut la On Saturday, after a slow start lojbangirz.'s phone bill. due to late sleepers, we started doing 'serious' Lojban. We had We believe these steps will be prepared for a couple of dozen more than sufficient to right ourdifferent kinds of activities, so tottering finances. We've made aas to be ready for a range of lot of progress so far, but as weLojban experience and interests. continue to rapidly grow, it is This year, attendees were almost easy to lose control. la all active students who knew lojbangirz. is now far larger enough vocabulary and grammar for than I can financially support byus to undertake intermediate myself. activities. As a business, we need a safety One activity that proved margin so that financial crisis moderately successful was is not always knocking at the translating aphorisms. People door. And if we have to worry seem much more comfortable trying less about finances, that means to translate single sentences all the more effort that can be both from English to Lojban and put towards writing books and vice versa, than with longer software and otherwise making texts. Thus, every participant sure Lojban continues to grow. got a random aphorism out of a box (we pregraded the aphorisms LogFest 91 by grammatical difficulty, so people chose a line they had a Logfest 91, the annual reasonable chance to translate), gathering for celebration of and worked on a translation to Lojban, started Thursday night, Lojban. More experienced June 20, with the arrival of the Lojbanists aided the less skilled first three visitors, even thoughones. Then each person presented no organized activities (other her/his translation to the group than getting ready) were as a whole, who then tried to scheduled for Friday. As happensfigure out what it meant. In when a good group of Lojbanists general, everyone successfully gets together, Friday was filled understood others' translations, with a variety of lively and using their word lists. interesting discussions (not A weakness of the activity was limited to Lojban). As people the size of the group. With over arrived, the discussions got a dozen participants, it took a livelier, and a bit more serious.long time to go through all On Friday night, we turned to translations. We know next time discussion of the financial we have that many people to di- situation, and a related matter -vide into groups, so that things the distribution of Lojban move quicker. Still, everyone materials electronically (via thelearned a lot, and many were sur- computer networks). Such distri-prised at how easily and well bution helps our costs by they could understand the trans- reducing postage, and offers the lations. You can try the potential of more rapidly activity yourself - aphorisms in expanding the Lojban community, both English and Lojban will be but with a likely loss of income found in le lojbo se ciska this since many people who receive issue. materials electronically will not Less intense was a discussion contribute to the costs of those on making tanru and lujvo. We've materials. tried this before, but working at The discussion ran all night, the level of individual words and was heated at times. The gets people bogged down in the result, though, was a workable semantics of English. In this policy that attendees were case, working on lujvo for the satisfied with. This new policy English word "tyranny", we ended is discussed below. up with over a dozen tanru, each 9 with its own subtle distinction finances will improve to the in meaning, and no real agreementpoint that we no longer have to on a 'best' one. My own opinion spend hours debating new is that there is no 'best' lujvo strategies. for any given English concept, With such a long meeting, non- because you will choose a voting Lojbanists tended to drift different emphasis depending on in and out of the meeting into a the context. This exercise, variety of discussions and always educational but always informal activities. By the end somewhat of a failure, reminds usof the meeting, a lively game of that Lojban and English are very "la reno preti" (20 Questions) different languages. was being played, entirely in There were other activities on Lojban. This proved to be the Saturday, but the primary focus most successful of the Lojban outside of the above activities activities, continuing well-into was group discussion and the evening. socializing. Art Protin and By Monday, only 3 Lojbanists David Twery, visiting from New were left. Two stayed until mid- Jersey and the Philadelphia area week, with Bob Chassell joining respectively met local Lojbanist in the regular Tuesday evening Sylvia Rutiser, and agreed to conversation group, reporting in start writing Lojban letters to Lojban on his touristy explo- each other; there is now good rations of Washington, and hope that there will come to be leading another round of "la reno active Lojban social/study groupspreti". One unfortunate problem in those two areas. Art and with a weekend gathering is that David also promised that every so many (especially those from once in a while they would pile out-of-town) cannot arrive until into the car and drive to the DC very late Frday (whereupon they area for an informal Lojban have to sleep half of Saturday in social get together. order to recover), and they then Sunday was dominated by the have to leave by late afternoon annual meeting of la lojbangirz.,Sunday. Given that the annual which started at 10:30 AM. That meeting so dominates Sunday, this meeting recessed for lunch, but tends to give us less than a day ran until 5 PM as we wrestled for a variety of activities. with financial issues and pri- Thus the activities portion of orities for the coming year. A LogFest has tended to be only lot of decisions were made, and mildly successful. even more than previous years, I We work more each year on pre- think people were both satisfied planning activities, but planning with the result and convinced is inherently limited. We never that everyone had a meaningful know till people arrive who is voice in the process. Since the coming, what their Lojban skill latter was a major reason for level is, and what activities forming la lojbangirz., these they find interesting. Also, as long meetings are worthwhile. with the aphorism translations, We are taking some steps activities that we test out towards speeding up future successfully in a weekly meetings. We will have more conversation session may work advance notice of agenda items soquite successfully with 5 or 6 people can be prepared for people, but may bog down with a discussion before LogFest starts.dozen or more participating. We will also try to have a Board Still, people noted and were of Directors meeting perhaps a pleased by the increasing month before LogFest to weed out sophistication of the in-Lojban issues and ensure group attentionactivities, and the general skill to the most important, while of everyone participating. We expediting routine business. We still haven't reached the point also hope, of course, that our where Lojban conversations break 10 out spontaneously, but this may lojbangirz.'s original charter in happen next year given the rate August 1987, when we started of improvement in Lojban "Lojban - The Realization of Log- speakers. More attendees will lan", now also known as make this more likely, and "Loglan/Lojban" or just "Lojban", improve the variety of activitiesla lojbangirz. has made repeated going on at any one time. efforts over the last several Total attendance was 17, most years to mend the political split of whom were there all weekend. with The Loglan Institute, Inc. 7 were from out-of-town. About Earlier this year, we proposed half were skilled enough to a settlement that would have converse at least minimally in remerged the two current versions Lojban, although such 'conver- of Loglan into one. The plan sations' tended to be only would have guaranteed an honored snippets and remarks. 13 place for JCB, as well as organi- attended the business meeting on zational and possible financial Sunday. John Cowan was elected support for the Institute. No to the Board of Directors and response was received. Albion Zeglin dropped his Board The Lojban design is and voting membership due to lackessentially complete. Time has of time. run out on making changes to LogFest is supposed to be FUN, facilitate a merger - we can no not all work. A major differencelonger make significant changes from previous LogFests is that without corresponding impact on the activities schedule didn't those who have learned and will include a mass of technical learn Loglan/Lojban. Our version debates and decisions that had toof Loglan is now substantially be made. Of course, since the better than the Institute's, and major Lojban design decisions we have people speaking and have been made, only relatively writing the language. minor questions of style, seman- As a result of this situation, tics, and how we teach the the LogFest attendees voted that language remain to be resolved. "Expending resources towards These were decided in advance, orreconciliation with JCB or the in a couple of cases, informally Institute is not a good use of during the gathering (for exam- resources at this time, but we ple, the nest of issues we've remain open to such called "sumti-raising" - see reconciliation should their below - were satisfactorily position change in the future." resolved "in the halls" during and "There is no longer special LogFest). authority given to pronouncements Among minor decisions: of JCB or the Institute about the "?spero" as a culture word for language." "Esperanto" was voted down, and It is unfortunate that we have the baseline of the gismu was had to go to such lengths in our reaffirmed; few of the 'old- dispute, but we have tried hard timers' want even minimal change.and long for an alternative "navni" is broadened to include without success. We cannot allow "inert gas" in its meaning. the ill will of one person, even Finally, pending grammar the language inventor, to prevent proposals were adopted and the us from freely using the language grammar was rebaselined until af-he invented. The language be- ter the textbook is completed - longs to the community now, as it people are generally satisfied must be to succeed. with the grammar for now, and are We hope that JCB and the waiting to see how it is used andInstitute will change their taught. position; we then can restore JCB la lojbangirz./Institute split to the position of honor and - In accordance with a unanimous esteem that he once held among vote taken at the time of la the entire Loglan community. 11 Languages Server' on the Electronic Distribution News Internet. Over the next few Lojban List Moves months, as time allows, Bob will prepare materials for A major accomplishment of distribution. (We will also LogFest was the adoption of a supply data directly on diskette policy for electronic - current price is $10 per distribution of materials that uncompressed diskful, in any of balances our desire to get these the 4 diskette formats we can products to the public, thus support: 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 high aiding in the language growth, and low density MS-DOS.) with our need for income from our For those with Internet access publications, and a goal to who wish to get materials, send a fairly distribute our services tomessage containing, on separate both computer people and non-com-lines, "help" and "index lojban" puter people. to: The essential core of the policy benefits all Lojbanists, listserv@hebrew.cc.columbia.edu regardless of your access to materials: All published The Server will reply "language definition materials" automatically. The index will will be placed in the public identify what files are available domain, and will be distributable- a reading priority should be a without restriction, in any 'read-me' file that will describe medium. These include word liststhe files officially put out by and the language grammar. la lojbangirz., and their status. Teaching materials, some draft The help file will tell you how materials, and all JLs, will be to request files to be sent to distributable under our retained you - generally all you need to copyright using a standard do is say: license - shown in the distribution policy below. All materials, except those that we rely on to show a profit to support our other activities (like software and the textbook), will be posted for electronic distribution. Some materials, like ju'i lobypli, will be posted after considerable delay (6 months or more), so that we make a current paid-for copy a valuable service. In addition, the material as posted will generally have minimal formatting for electronic text. Electronic JLs and many other publications will be difficult to read, because standard electronic text uses 80 characters per line, and we use much higher print densities in formatting our publications. As a result, an electronic 'printout' of JL may have sections that will be un- readable without manual editing; la lojbangirz. will not do that editing. Our point of original distribution will be the 'Planned 12 "send lojban/filename". Jerry Altzman is helping us out in another way. Volume on the On an organized basis, we Lojban List mailing group has expect that much of this materialgrown so that it was straining will be cross-posted to the Com- list-founder Eric Raymond's puserve 'Foreign Language network connection. Jerry found Education' forum by varying room for us on one of the Lojbanists with access to both computers he manages, and Lojban Internet and Compuserve. Lojban-List was switched during the last ists are welcome to distribute week of August. In addition, the the material electronically in list now uses a more advanced keeping with the policy described"Listserv" process that allows below - any restrictions will be people to sign up and remove noted in the files themselves. themselves from the list, tem- All materials will be released porarily suspend receiving directly by me to Jerry Altzman messages when overloaded or of the PLS. The read-me file vacationing, and of course post will contain my directory of messages, all without human dates and version numbers of all intervention. See page 2 for such releases. details. We eventually plan to include in the official directory an MD-4 (tamper-resistant 'message di- gest' value) for each file so you can verify that material you ob- tain is authentic. We will also publish a printed MD-4 checksum list separately, and will make available for free a program to determine the MD-4 checksum of any file. There are some hangups in implementing the MD-4 support because the checksum must be calculated on the file as it actually is sent by the Server, which has UNIX-oriented line and file conventions that differ from the ones associated with the MS- DOS version produced by la lojbangirz. Others are encouraged submit Lojban materials to the Server; we will occasionally check these materials and advise the Server managers (Lojbanists Jerry Altzman and Mark Shoulson) as to which materials we think are useful and current. (We ask that you send us a copy of all such submissions, with a note that you plan to so submit them. Send them either by paper-mail to the la lojbangirz. address, or electronically to: lojbab@grebyn.com la lojbangirz. encourages comments on draft materials that are released to PLS. 13 Logical Languages Group Policy word lists and other language Electronic Distribution of definition materials, will be Materials copyrighted using a copyright Approved 23 June 1991 notice essentially similar to the one attached to this draft Copyright, 1991 policy. The Logical Language Group, Inc. (la lojbangirz.) 4) To assure the integrity of 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-electronically distributed la 1303 USA lojbangirz. materials, every Phone (703) 385-0273 document distributed electronically will bear a All rights reserved. Permission message digest value computed to copy granted subject to your using the MD-4 algorithm, source verification that this is the code for which is publicly latest version of this document, available. that your distribution be for the promotion of Lojban, that there 5) la lojbangirz. will make is no charge for the product, andavailable, free of charge, a list that this copyright notice is of the MD-4 message digest values included intact in the copy. for all materials released in electronic distribution. la 1) la lojbangirz. publications lojbangirz. will also provide a and materials are hereby divided program to compute message digest into three groups: values, free of charge with the purchase of Group C materials, Group A materials consist of subject to technical limitations. text, and are sold at or near cost. 6) la lojbangirz. intends to use Group B materials consist of the Planned Languages Server as text, and are sold above cost. the primary distribution medium Group C materials consist of on the Internet. Other computer software, and are sold distribution media on the same or above cost. other networks may be established at la lojbangirz.'s discretion. This division is independent of the division into Level/Package 7) Materials in Group B and Group 0-3 materials, which depends not C will not be distributed on cost but on the presumed electronically. Group C interest level of the reader. materials in object form will be distributed on diskette and 2) The following are non- whatever other media are exhaustive lists of materials in technically available to la each group: lojbangirz. (currently, none). Group A: JL and LK issues; draft textbook lessons; word 8) Source code to Group C lists; language definition software will be made available materials; ancillary materials. on diskette or other media to Group B: the (as yet unwritten)persons who sign a non-disclosure textbook; the (as yet unwritten) agreement with la lojbangirz., at dictionary. a cost equal to the cost of the Group C: Logflash for PC and Group C software in object form. Mac; the la lojbangirz. Lojban Parser (in beta release); lujvo- 9) This policy becomes effective maker; random sentence generator.when ratified by la lojbangirz.'s official bodies. (it has been.) 3) la lojbangirz. will provide It may be altered at any time by all materials in Group A for la lojbangirz. electronic distribution free of charge. All materials, except 14 Language Development Activities A last minute proposal assigns rafsi to fo'a, fo'e and fo'i Vocabulary - Many minor (selma'o KOhA). These assigned vocabulary-polishing activities to names with du or goi plus occurred since last issue. 20 several other cmavo rafsi (mi, gismu proposed and approved last do, vi, va, vu, ti, ta, tu) can year were finally created using be used along with names to allow the 6-language algorithm. rafsi more abbreviated expressions of were assigned to as many of thesecultures not included in the as possible, and the cmavo list gismu list. e.g. fo'e du la was examined to see how many suomis (Finland). .i mi cilre lo cmavo that might be useful in fo'enselsanga. (I learn a lujvo could be assigned rafsi. Finnish song.) Since the most The revised rafsi have been useful culture words are those released in an updated list - seefor 'my' culture and 'your' the products news below. The newculture, "mi" and "do" will be gismu and the changes to the likely to be used in this way. rafsi list are in the features The last paragraph uses the section of this issue. word "selma'o", which may be The cmavo list has also been unfamiliar. We have adopted this updated - reflecting the grammar lujvo for what we have previously and usage developments of the called a "lexeme". The lujvo is last year. Extended definitions,based on the second place of up to 96 characters long, are "cmavo", which is the grammatical incorporated into the new list. role of the cmavo. The things we The cmavo list update will be are calling "selma'o" are the released at approximately the basic grammatical types of cmavo same time as JL16 in October, and other words found in Lojban. along with the Logflash 3 cmavo (The definition of "selma'o" instruction software and other shows a little of the meaning materials, giving time for last variation permissible in lujvo, minute reviews. since selma'o BRIVLA and CMENE The gismu place structure are not grammatical units of revision has been idling since cmavo, although all other selma'o last fall. This project was are. The generalized meaning intended to produce 96-character implicit in "selma'o" is extended and clarified place acceptable since people learn structures/definitions for each finely details of word meanings gismu, thus providing clearer by seeing how they are used, not information for those learning by some kind of rigorous and using the words, and allowinganalysis.) the new list to be used as input Grammar - The proposed changes for the updated LogFlash 1, now to the grammar printed in JL14 scheduled for October release. went without a single comment, or The place structure review willeven a question. What little almost certainly not be completedfeedback we got seemed to before that October release indicate that the discussion was because of its relatively low too technical for most readers, priority, so we have decided thatand that without considerably a version close to the present more discussion and examples, working list will be released in printing the proposals was not October at the time LogFlash is worthwhile. updated, replacing the current Additional proposals evolved list. The new list will become after JL14 was published, finally the official public domain totalling 28. All but one, the language definition list upon re-'sumti-raising' proposal lease, and we will recommend thatdiscussed below, passed without people studying or using the comment from Lojban List as well. language start using that list as Thus, at Logfest, the set of 28 soon as possible. changes was adopted, and the 15 grammar was rebaselined until has backed this discussion with after the textbook is completed the most prolific use of the and reviewed. We do not plan to language after Michael Helsem consider any changes until then, (whose Lojban poetry is now truly and very few are expected to voluminous - he has published a surface, anyway. volume of it). Even the 28 changes adopted are Style and semantic issues that quite minor: almost nothing have been raised and discussed on written in the language in the Lojban List are too numerous to past two years became mention here. A lengthy ungrammatical as a result of discussion of relativistic tenses changes, and a few things not started the trend last winter. grammatical became so, since manyMore recently, the primary topics of the changes were designed to have been the determination of bring the formal description of meaning of lujvo (stimulated by the grammar more closely aligned Jim Carter's oft-rejected with how people actually were proposal for what he calls using the language. "dikyjvo" - regular mandatory Indeed, and this seems rules for building lujvo based on significant: in the last few the source gismu place months it has become clear that structures), the distinction no longer is the language design between abstract and non-abstract being driven by language sumti values (tied in with the engineers like myself who are discussion of 'sumti-raising' - trying to figure out how people see below), the meaning and usage WILL use the language. Instead, of the various modals in selma'o we have a group of people using BAI, and the mass/set/individual Lojban, and what they find out indistinction in Lojban trying to express things in the descriptors. language has driven many, if not Other 'old' issues are really most, of the most recent changes.semantic ones. Debate has The other significant factor incontinued on the necessity and the grammar is that a complete- value of the cultural gismu and grammar Lojban parser has finallythe gismu that represent been completed. Not only does elements. Most often the debate this provide a new standard for derives from new people who are what is grammatical in the not familiar with the reasons why language, but it serves as a they were included, which include stabilizing force motivating historical reasons as well as the against changes that might renderjustification of usage. There is this valuable tool outdated. considerable fear that these (The parser is expected to be words will lead to cultural released some time this fall.) biases, fears not shared by Bob Semantics and style - A new and others who have been working entry in this discussion, becauseon the language longest. We the Lojban design plan excludes expect that this issue will not semantics and style being be resolved until the dictionary prescribed. However, we have is published, wherein the words people actively using the lan- for other cultures and elements guage in conversation, that did not get assigned gismu translation, and new writings. will be listed, along with the The questions that come up in rules for deriving new words of actual usage of the language are those kinds as needed. (An generally not grammatical ones, article later in this issue but usage questions like "How do discusses cultural gismu.) you say this?" and "Why doesn't One recurring issue that this work?". affects the community as a whole One Lojbanist, Nick Nicholas, is the frequency and type of has made discussion of style his translations presented with primary theme on Lojban List. HeLojban text. We can give no 16 translation, or a block the book, but if you like poetry, translation for an entire text, the English versions will have or line by line translations value and the enormous volume of which are either colloquial Lojban may inspire you, as well English or word-for-word. The as provide ideas on what works more literal the translation, theand what fails to communicate in less need you have to look up Lojban text. We have several words in words lists. This can copies left of this 'first Lojban be both good and bad: the trade-book', which we will send free off is between learning the upon request to anyone making a vocabulary or understanding the prepaid order over $20, or for grammar. Some people want text postage costs only ($2-$3) they can try to read and be otherwise. Michael seeks challenged. Others are just try-comments and suggestions from all ing to get a feel for the readers. language. What do you want? John Hodges observes that What do you think we should Michael's publication, even with change, if anything, in our imperfect Lojban, is a "signifi- Lojban text presentations in JL? cant event, symbolically and politically. This is exactly the kind of thing [la lojbangirz.] Using the Language wanted to make possible by insisting that the language be This is the most significant public domain, and precisely what area of news, in my opinion. TheJCB wanted to prevent by keeping number of people actively trying copyright control over the very to speak and write in Lojban to words of his language. Helsem communicate with others has ex- did not ask permission to ploded. Since JL14, I have re- publish. You and he took it for ceived or reviewed extensive textgranted that it was his right to (more than a couple of paragraphspublish. JCB would deny this. of block text) in Lojban from BobTo defend the purity of the Chassell, John Cowan, Ivan language, JCB would insist that Derzhanski, Coranth D'Gryphon, Helsem correct his grammar before Michael Helsem, Rory Hinnen, Nickpublishing. (Not to mention, Nicholas, Sylvia Rutiser, Mark send royalties to JCB.)" Shoulson, David Twery, and writ- Sylvia Rutiser and Ernest ten some myself. By comparison, Heramia started an intermittent only Jamie Bechtel, John Cowan, 'pen-pal' correspondence last Sylvia Rutiser and myself sent inwinter. Ivan Derzhanski extensive text over the 8 month (Bulgaria) and Nick Nicholas period between JL13 and JL14. (Australia) started the first This is not counting a couple international correspondence ex- of dozen people who have written change in May. Recently Sylvia, letters or sent messages elec- David Twery, and Art Protin tronically with a sentence or twostarted a round-robin letter of understandable and often gram-exchange. I have a list of matical text. Several other peo-several others interested in ple have told me that they have writing letters in Lojban - send written some, or a lot of, Lojbanus a note with a few sentences text (in some cases, I am waiting(or maybe a self-descriptive to see before believing; the paragraph) in Lojban with English amounts claimed seem incredible).translation, and we will try to Michael Helsem has collected match you with someone of several of his Lojban poems, madecomparable skill. Give us some corrections, and published them indication of how often you would in an artistically decorated expect to write - one problem we cover - copies were given to have experienced so far is people every LogFest attendee. There prepared to write as often as are still some Lojban errors in 17 once a week paired with people other ongoing activity is the who take months to respond. construction of a Lojban The amount of Lojban text now traveler's phrase book, after the being posted on the Lojban List style of Berlitz. is rather overwhelming at times. New Lojbanic activities seem to Nick Nicholas first got materialssurface every week or two, and I from us around the time JL14 was have no doubt that there will be published. He has recently been a new crop of them to report by the most prolific and one of the JL16. Why not let yours be among most skillful among Lojban writ- them? ers, posting paragraphs of text to Lojban List virtually every week. Noting that Nick is also a Research and Linguistics full-time student AND one of the leaders of the Australian Es- The Loglan Project is starting peranto organization, his to become a real research productivity makes me ashamed of endeavor again. We have estab- my own (but .ui what lished a presence on several inspiration). major forums for computer Also on the computer network, linguistics information exchange, Jack Bennetto has started a game and are making ourselves known to of "telephone" (you may know thislinguists who are researching in as "whisper down the line", or byareas where Lojban might be rele- another name). Starting with a vant. Among these areas are: moderately complex sentence, each- linguistic expression of successive person translates whatemotion; he/she receives from English to - word compounding; Lojban or vice versa, and passes - predicate deep structure the translation to the next grammars; person. We've had no reports yet- the ISO standards for on how well this activity is international character set proceeding. encodings; Weekly Lojban conversation - semiotics; sessions have continued here in - representation of abstraction; the Washington DC area, with any-- logical expression; where from 3 to 6 attending each - computational linguistics; session (about 10 people total - machine translation; have participated). The amount - abstract system specification of conversation time has dropped language; a bit, because the group spent - foreign language education. time before LogFest planning ac- tivities for the gathering. At least one well-known linguist Since LogFest, we have started anhas expressed interest in Lojban, intermittent group project - and we hope to attract many more. translating the entire board game Bob wrote an essay on the "Careers" into Lojban in honor oflinguistic research applications Jim Brown, who invented both the of Lojban for posting to one of language and the game. (We may these groups. This essay appears seek permission from Parker later in this issue, slightly Brothers Inc., which owns rights edited. A new version of the to the game, to distribute the Lojban brochure will be issued in game translation to those of you a couple of months, incorporating who are interested.) some of this material. Not all Lojban text is orderly. Athelstan and Bob attended GURT Next issue will contain a (The Georgetown University Round sampling of the Lojban graffiti Table of Linguistics) this year. that appeared on a wall of Bob GURT is one of the more and Nora's house (specially prestigious linguistics prepared to make this non- conferences. There were just destructive) during LogFest. Oneunder 800 attendees. After 18 initially being hesitant for fearinitial bid, but preparing the of adverse reaction from proposal stimulated much new linguists, on Wednesday we put activity around here and opened out about 30 brochures with a options that look quite promising short note on Lojban's for the future. applicability to linguistics Bidding for research grants is research. They were gone within a learning experience. In today's two hours. On Thursday we put competitive research environment, out 110 more, and nearly all wereit may take several proposals to gone when the conference ended atget one grant or contract. The 4PM. We got some great name initial proposal not only serves recognition out of this, even if as a basis for further proposals, none of these brochure readers which are now half written at the decides to do something about start, but every effort we make Lojban just yet. teaches us more about how to do I suspect some will do so things better the next time. eventually. Almost everyone we For example, since submitting talked to seemed at least mildly the proposal abstract, John Cowan interested in the concept of an has been researching and writing artificial language designed for up a detailed analysis that shows linguistics research, and a that Lojban is a superset of the couple of researchers thought we computer language PROLOG, often had some interesting research used in artificial intelligence angles that they might like to processing. This means that investigate. I would say that most, if not all, Lojban Athelstan and I together threw upsentences could be processed into more questions (usually good fromPROLOG statements and fed into a the reaction of the audience and PROLOG processor. This would the speaker) than most people, sogreatly reduce the cost and risk I'm sure we were noticed. of developing a Lojban processor The primary topic at GURT was from scratch. (We seek PROLOG foreign language education, but experts among the community to we also attended sessions on review John's work. Let us know natural language processing. you're interested!) la lojbangirz. is planning to A major plus in our efforts to attend at least one and possibly obtain research funding is John two more linguistics conferences Cowan's completion of a full- this year. language Lojban parser. Still in la lojbangirz. is closer to testing, this parser breaks all initiating scientific research Lojban text (including cmavo using Lojban. The new version ofcompounds) down to individual LogFlash contains instrumentationwords and parses the results. that will allow study of how The ability to parse at the people learn words, and whether individual word level is a major the recognition score algorithm improvement over the best used to build the words has any accomplishments of the Loglan relevance to their learnability. Institute before we started on More importantly, la the Lojban redesign. More lojbangirz. in July prepared and importantly, it is better than submitted its first research anything that can be accomplished proposal. The proposal (actuallyin processing natural languages. a proposal abstract since we did Of course, our 'advantage' may not request a specific dollar be a problem with getting DARPA amount) was submitted to DARPA funding. It turns out that (US Defense Advanced Research having bypassed the worst Projects Agency), the primary problems in natural language government funding agency for processing, the problems that we artificial intelligence and need and want to solve to process natural language processing Lojban text are quite different research. We didn't win this than the ones considered on the 19 'leading edge' of research. We (Level B) Observer (old level thus are required to write 0/B) proposals extremely carefully to (Level C) Active show how learning to process Observer/Supporter (old level 1 Lojban text will lead to better and 2) processing of natural languages. (Level D) Lojban Student (old We hope to include portions of level 3) our proposal in JL16, in order to(Level E) Lojban Practitioner give our supporters an idea of (people demonstrating some how we are presenting the competency with the language, language. But also, we welcome and actively using it in some suggestions from the community on regular activity) how to better explain our research approach, and to prove that it is sound. (We also want to hear of any alternate research approaches that we may be missing). Products Status, Prices, and Ordering With the decisions described in the finances section, we are making changes in our coding for mailing status. These changes are summarized in the new mailing label coding block on page 1. Most importantly, we have separated JL and LK subscriptions from the status codes (levels 0, 1, 2, 3, and B). We have also added an automatic update status that is independent of the others, indicating your desire to receive updates and your commitment to keep enough in your balance to pay for them. Next, we are separating the activity level implied in the level numbers from the encoding of the materials we actually have sent you. As people have moved around in level, or been downgraded, your 'mailing level' no longer tells us what material you have. The activity level portion of your level will be converted to a letter code indicating your current interest level. The level numbers 0 through 3 will refer to a series of packaged ma- terials that will tell us what we've sent you. The conversion to letter codes, and their interpretation, is as follows: 20 ('A', in case you are wondering, Products and Schedule - This is used for people dropped from past year has been one of change, our mailing list, for whom we of consolidation. We haven't maintain financial accounts produced many 'new' things; we because we've sent materials.) have been enhancing and refining old ones. The difference between old The fruits of that effort are level 0 and old level B has now starting to show up on our merely been whether you were order forms. Even more will ap- receiving le lojbo karni or not. pear over the next couple of The original difference betweenissues. The following is a old levels 1 and 2 was whether summary of the current products you automatically get updates of schedule (as well as the minor materials when they are updated releases since last issue): (presumably a level 2 was more active and needed the latest in- (Jun 91) formation for active work). Electronic postings to P.L.S.: Since we went so long without Baselined gismu list (old issuing any updates, and have version) gotten into such a financial Draft Proposed gismu Place morass, the distinction became Structure Revisions insignificant. Review of Loglan 1 - Draft Long Then, during the last year, we Version started sending some additional materials to level 2 people that we don't send to level 1 people, in order to keep the level 1 price down. Thus the original distinction we intended between the two levels was lost, and we are restoring that information as the automated update flag. You will not receive automatic updates unless you keep suffi- cient balance to pay for them. These codes will now appear separately on your mailing label, and with the start of paid JL subscriptions, your subscription expiration date/ issue will also appear on your mailing label. There is increasing interest among Lojbanists in contacting and communicating with others of equivalent skill levels. Right now, Bob makes these evaluations subjectively, but as the numbers of people actually using the language increases, Bob's evaluations become less reliable. Thus, we are also planning a proficiency code system that will tell us your demonstrated profi- ciency level at reading, writing, or speaking Lojban. To minimize confusion, we will delay im- plementing this for about 6 months. Suggestions are welcome, though. 21 (Aug 91) Rebaselined gismu list Printed: (updated) Updated rafsi list and lujvo- Synopsis of Lojban Orthography, making guide Phonology, and Morphology (updated) (Sep 91) Lojban and Machine Translation Printed: Lojban and Esperanto - 16 Rules JL15 Comparison and Commentary LK15 Lojban, Sapir-Whorf and Synopsis of Lojban Orthography, Semiotics Phonology, and Morphology (updated) (Nov 91) Attitudinal Paper (updated) Printed: What is Lojban - la lojban. mo JL16 Brochure (revised) LK16 What is Lojban - la lojban. mo Software Brochure (Esperanto version) Lojban Parser (PC and some UNIX Software: versions) Revised Random Sentence Electronic postings to P.L.S.: Generator New Textbook Lesson 1 Draft Revised lujvo-Making Program JL14 Electronic postings to P.L.S.: LK14 What is Lojban - la lojban. mo le'avla-making algorithm and Brochure (revised) examples (Cowan) What is Lojban - la lojban. mo Brochure (Esperanto version) Overview of Lojban (1991 (Dec 91) update) Electronic postings to P.L.S.: lujvo-making guide selma'o paper (Cowan) Updated rafsi list Selected list of Lojbanized Re-baselined formal grammar names E-BNF for re-baselined grammar Revised Draft Lessons 1-6 Reply to Arnold Zwicky's review A comparison of Lojban and 1989 of Loglan 1 (orig. review Institute Loglan (Cowan) 1969) Glossary of Lojban/linguistic Revised cmavo list terminology Back issues of JL #1-13 Back issues of LK #8-13 (Jan 92) Summaries of sci.lang Printed: discussions of Lojban JL17 The Lord's Prayer in Lojban LK17 (Revised 1991) Lojban Learning Materials Negation paper (Book) Lojban Mini-Lesson (Athelstan) Lojban Reference Materials (Book) (Oct 91) Printed: Unscheduled But Planned Re-baselined formal grammar E-BNF for re-baselined grammar Printed: Lojban Mini-Lesson (Athelstan) Lojban Textbook Revised cmavo list Lojban Dictionary Rebaselined gismu list Lojban Pocket Reference (updated) Lojban Reader (Book) Software: Lojban Phrase Book LogFlash 1 - gismu (Revision 7)Printed and Electronic: LogFlash 3 - cmavo (Revision 1) Lojban gismu Etymologies Electronic postings to P.L.S.: Software: Lojban Tense Paper (Cowan) Logflash 2 - rafsi (Revision 7) Lojban MEX Paper (Cowan) Hypercard LogFlash/Mac - Attitudinal Paper (updated) (Revised and New versions) 22 Lojban Adventure Game worst; page numbering will be incorrect, and graphics (like Now that we've shown the Nora's cartoons) will not be pre- overall plan, we can explain. sented at all. Some of these As with all of our schedules, materials will thus be of this one should be taken as a marginal use; consensus is that plan, not a promise. We are a different people judge usefulness volunteer organization and the by different standards. schedule depends on the time Software updates to all of our availability of specific people. software nears completion. In We also are short of money, and the case of the lujvo-making pro- the scheduled publications dependgram and random sentence heavily on significant numbers ofgenerator, this is merely an you paying up your balances and update to accept new data files putting in additional money to based on the latest language cover these new products. definition. The true goals are the items As described in JL14, LogFlash, listed for next January - two our vocabulary teaching software, books that will contain all of is undergoing a major overhaul. the teaching and reference The new versions retain the materials we have put out, teaching algorithm that has updated to the current language. proven so effective, but adds In the process of creating colored screens, user those books, all of our current flexibility, and a new learning products will be updated to re- mode designed to help Lojbanists flect changes in the language or quickly become familiar with the the way we teach it. As each is range of the gismu and cmavo updated, there will be a heavy without the time-consuming effort emphasis on making it available needed to master the lists. on the Planned Languages Server. Since the major guideline for This helps fulfill our obligationthis schedule is the earliest and commitment to place the practical publication of two language definition materials in books, let us look more closely the public domain, enables more at what they are and why we are people to see detailed design putting them out. information about Lojban, and of First, these two books may be course gives us some last minute considered the prototype Lojban feedback on these materials textbook and dictionary. The before binding them. word "prototype" is used because In the process of making these Bob has long had an idea of what materials available, we will be a Lojban textbook and dictionary reviewing them for current SHOULD be, and these short term accuracy, and will make minor products will not be anything revisions and updates. Some of like the goal versions. the printed products will thus However, people in the not be generally distributed - wecommunity are in need of books won't waste your money (and Bob'scontaining materials for studying time) sending you minor Lojban, and reference materials corrections to a publication you needed to use Lojban. Even may not be using. We will, serious Lojbanists who work with however, send the latest version the language a lot are becoming on new orders, and inform you in overwhelmed by the volume of this column about other revisionsmaterials and updates that la you may want to know about. lojbangirz. has issued. Time is As noted in the discussion of being wasted hunting through electronic policy above, we will accumulated ju'i lobypli issues not be rewrite or specially and enclosures, and other format materials for electronic materials you have obtained from distribution. Tables and some us, looking for relevant material example texts will suffer the that has become a bit outdated. 23 The language design is now firm one, possibly with sample enough that we can create up-to- sentences for each; date versions of all important - a glossary of linguistic and materials. By collecting these Lojban jargon terms; materials in bound volumes, we - a selected list of le'avla give people actively working with borrowings and an algorithm the language the tools you need to make more; to do so - all in one place. - a selected list of Lojbanized Bob's work on the textbook names; revision has dragged on far too - a set of cultural/national long, and the reasons are not words for all countries in going away. Shifting away from the United Nations, and se- long-term targets to short-term lected other places; goals, he has already picked up - a selma'o catalog describing in productivity. the grammar of each word The materials being revised and type, with many examples; issued electronically (and - as many sample lujvo as we have occasionally in printed form) time to verify and space to over the next 6 months will include. become the contents of the new This book will also run about books. The books will then be 300-400 pages and be bound. It assembled out of the revised will also probably cost around pieces and published, hopefully, $25, depending on orders. around the beginning of next Since we have had an excellent year. record of recruiting Institute Under current plans, the Loglanists who later find out learning materials book will about Lojban, la lojbangirz. is contain the 1st lesson of the planning a 'guide to Lojban for revised textbook, Lojban mini- Institute Loglanists', which may lessons by Athelstan and John be incorporated in one of the two Hodges, the 6 draft textbook planned books. This will lessons, the negation paper, the maximize people's use of the attitudinal paper, the old Institute's books that may have grammar summary, and selected been purchased, since much of the short writings (mostly revised material JCB has written applies from JL articles) that teach the to Lojban equally as well as the language. This will be publishedInstitute version of the as a bound book, probably Velo- language. bound. Total page count will Once the books are out, Bob exceed 400 pages. Price will be will then concentrate on around $25-$30, depending on the producing refined versions while number of advance orders. you concentrate on learning and The reference manual will using Lojban. Your efforts will contain revised versions of:then provide the hundreds of - la lojban. mo brochure; examples needed for the properly - Overview of Lojban; completed books. - Machine grammar and E-BNF; The only immediately available - Synopsis of phonology, new product is an updated rafsi morphology, and orthography;list, incorporating the changes - gismu list updated with new listed later in this issue. place structures, and Also, since people receiving the Roget's Thesaurus codes, andrafsi in the past have often had multiple English synonyms no idea how to use it, the where applicable (instead ofsection on lujvo-making from the the English keyword index Synopsis has been extracted and used now); heavily revised, and will now be - rafsi lists and lujvo-making distributed with the rafsi list. guide; - cmavo list with clearer definitions than the current International News 24 Australian Lojban Society - la Esperanto brochure - lojbangirz. has effectively Considerable effort by Paul gained an affiliate in Australia. Francis O'Sullivan, followed up Major, in Perth, and Nick by Mark Shoulson, Nick Nicholas, Nicholas, in Melbourne, are and David Twery, have led to a attempting to establish and keep complete and up-to-date contact with all Lojbanists in translation of the la lojban. mo Australia and New Zealand. In brochure into Esperanto. In addition, because the cost of addition, Mark is formatting it mailing overseas is so high, for a typeset-quality master, andMajor is serving as a focal point we should have printed copies for la lojbangirz. mailings, and within a few weeks. The brochurehe then redistributes copies to will also be posted all his correspondents. Nick is electronically on the Planned becoming one of our most skilled Languages Server, and possibly onLojbanists, and can answer most Compuserve. questions about the language. Large numbers of our readers This benefits la lojbangirz., are Esperantists interested in because we lose money on most Lojban. We encourage you to overseas mailings even with the distribute copies of the 20% surcharge we require. It Esperanto version to other benefits those who are part of Esperantists. This not only willthe new group, because it costs spread knowledge of Lojban aroundless for all of you: Major can the world, but it will enhance produce copies for you and get our position as an artificial them to you via local post much language working with the cheaper than we can. Major does Esperanto community, and not in ask for reimbursing of his expen- competition with it. Indeed, we ses, or the group will not be now see Esperanto as one of our able to grow. primary languages for spreading Major and Nick both keep in information about Lojban to othercommunication with the rest of la countries. lojbangirz. via electronic mail. We don't yet have other Major's address is: materials about Lojban in Esperanto, but we expect that Major this will change. As more and Box T1680 GPO more Esperantists who also speak Perth WA 6001 English join in with those who AUSTRALIA translated the brochure, our ability to produce Esperanto Nick's address is: translations of our other materials improves. Nick Nicholas (We remind our readers that we 17 Renowden St. also have a French translation ofCheltenham Victoria 3192 the brochure, although it has notAUSTRALIA been updated yet to reflect new policies and new materials, and It doesn't take a lot of people is missing the newly added to make this type of regional section on Lojban and linguisticsgroup work (there are 7 on our research.) lists in this region of the (We are constantly seeking world, and only 5 are thus far volunteers to translate any of participating). We require that our materials into other lan- one person is willing to take guages. Please contact us if responsibility to get materials interested. Such volunteer work to the others, and also take the is the type which we qualify for financial risk of supporting credits in receiving materials those who don't pay for materials when you cannot pay for them.) right away. 25 We welcome others who would Publicity - Bob and Nora's Trip like to try to similarly organize the people of your country and Bob and Nora travelled to the possibly neighboring countries. San Francisco area in late April Already, we have a potential for a vacation and Lojban pro- volunteer in Sweden, Christopher motion trip. We had an Arnold, who hopes to organize andopportunity to meet with several recruit other Lojbanists to join Lojbanists, though with a couple the half dozen of you now in the we were dogged by an inability to Scandinavian countries. get schedules together. We regret those of you we missed. (One way not to be missed is to make sure we have your telephone number - sometimes plans get made in a big hurry. Specify if the number is unlisted or otherwise not for release to other Lojbanists.) Bob gave one lecture, to a group of students at St. Mary's College including Dr. Robert Gorsch's class in semiotics that has studied a small Lojban unit (see JL12 for more on this class), and gave two talks combined with mini-lessons to groups of Lojbanists. Dave Cortesi organized and publicized the primary meeting, held in Palo Alto. Donald Simpson organized the other at his house in Albany as a smaller event for those who couldn't get to the other meeting. A total of around 20 people showed up between the two meetings. Special pleasure was Scott (Layson) Burson's attendance at the Palo Alto meeting. Scott, now inactive in the Loglan community, did the final work to complete the first Loglan parser and the first version of the machine grammar accepted by the Institute. Jay Stowell arranged to videotape the Palo-Alto mini- lesson. We have considered distributing copies of this, but the cost of videotape duplication is high enough that we want to use a better original (unedited videotapes have a 'home movie' quality about them, and we saw no easy way to turn Jay's tape into a salable product). We are going to try to specially film a mini- lesson, hopefully later this year. Brad Lowry, who does professional video filming, has 26 volunteered to film and edit thislegal position, that 'Loglan' mini-lesson. cannot be a 'trademark', was Some new people attended the sound, and was important to our Palo Alto meeting, and at least making the Loglan project a one person signed up as a level 3success. Contrary to what JCB Lojban student. All-in-all, the claims, our legal fight started meeting was a success, though we when Jim Brown sent a letter always wish we could have done threatening us with legal action better at getting information to (a copy of this letter was prospective attendees and helpingincluded in all issues of JL5); more people to attend. it is unfortunate for all of us Finally, Bob and Nora got that his position on threats was together for a brunch with Scott not then what it is today: Burson and Doug Landauer, another JCB reiterates his claims that pioneer in Loglan machine grammarBob and Nora split off from the work. Institute "presumably to ac- commodate their own entrepreneurial interests", using News From the Institute "the threat of schism to try to make us [change Institute Legal - Last issue, we thought business policies]". He then in- the legal battles between la sists that the two efforts "went lojbangirz. and the Loglan Insti-their separate ways" because tute had finally ended. Alas, "threats seldom work on human be- the day after JL14 went to press,ings". we heard from our lawyer that Jim Our answer: No! Our purpose Brown had informed him of his in starting Lojban was to put intent to appeal to the US Court Loglan in the hands of the people of Appeals. who had been promised it, had At this writing, the appeal paid for it, and had long assumed process is well underway. The that they had the free right to Institute has filed its appeals use it as they choose, as "the brief and we have responded; we human use of any language is, of see little chance of the appeal course, in the public domain" succeeding. We won't go into the(Jim Brown, again, but this time issues again at length - anyone from a 1977 proposal). interested can contact us for JCB also claims that "there details. were no substantial intellectual We are hoping for a ruling differences between me and the around the end of the year which proto-Lojbanists". firmly closes the door on the le- Response: We consider our gal battle. Meanwhile, we are commitment to intellectual proceeding in accordance with thefreedom a substantial difference. decision, using "Loglan" to refer To stop these misstatements of to the generic language of which our purpose and goals, and to "Lojban" and what we have been ensure that there is no further calling "Institute Loglan" are doubt or misconception of our versions. true purpose, we have modified JCB claims in the new Lognet our statements about Loglan and that our initial challenge was Lojban that appear on page 1 on "an harassment designed to straineach issue of ju'i lobypli to our resources" and that our suit more clearly indicate that the "is a timewaster once based on free use of Loglan as a human the premise that The Institute language is the sole reason for couldn't or wouldn't be able to the split and our existence. respond to their attack." Actually, of the statements in Our response: No! We hoped the new issue of Lognet, those of that the dispute could be settlededitor Jim Smith are most of- by negotiation, but fought at fensive, and are indeed libelous. this juncture because we knew ourMr. Smith accuses la lojbangirz. 27 with the false statements "LLG publication in the Communications has been around for just a few of the ACM, a noted computer years, but they are claiming all journal, albeit not a refereed of JCB's work since 1955 as theirpublication. This paper was own ... I will not give free finally submitted, and was advertising to a competitor whoserejected. primary technique is plagiarism la lojbangirz. is considering and whose product lacks any hint its own paper on Loglan/Lojban's of originality." Mr. Smith has formal grammar, but not until received a considerable set of next year. our publications and knows that Declensions - Institute Loglan we claim no work of JCB's as our added an 'animal' declension own. We have formally requested proposed over a year ago by Bob that Mr. Smith issue a retractionMcIvor. The change adds a large and public apology for these number of gismu to that version uncalled for and unacceptable of Loglan which differ from each remarks. other only in the final vowel. A Name of the language - We have broader proposal for a broader been told that some supporters ofset of declensions, applying to Jim Brown are offended by our useall Institute Loglan gismu, was of "Institute Loglan" for their never formalized, and is no version of the language. We havelonger being considered. asked for an alternative other Publications - There has been than the generic name that would no further word of the satisfy them, but have received reincarnation of The Loglanist no response. We cannot agree to that was promised for late last use the generic name "Loglan" year. Lognet has continued only for their version - we need coming out quarterly to 'Members' and use the term for our of the Institute. The May issue, discussion of the evolutionary indicated that the 'membership' history of the language that numbered 110. The August issue includes Lojban, and in reaching reported another 7 members were out to people who have heard of added. Loglan through Robert Heinlein's Bill Gober, in the new issue of books or the 1960 Scientific Lognet, criticizes the Institute American article, and might not use of the "lexemic pause". This realize that Lojban implements is not a new criticism, and was the language described. one of the key language changes The Institute Moves - Shortly we made in designing Lojban. before publication, the InstituteWhat is new is that this lengthy moved back to San Diego (actuallycriticism was printed without Jim Brown moved - the Institute rebuttal from JCB, who was less proper will continue to be open-minded on the subject four incorporated in Florida and hold years ago. annual meetings there). Steve Rice is the chief word- "Careers" Lives - Jim Brown maker for the Institute now. He reports that the board game has made several dozen new words, Careers, which he invented, is both gismu and lujvo, and these again on the market. This have appeared in the last couple additional income is bolstering of issues. Some of these are his capability to finance the good, but most have the Institute. He indicates that traditional failings of tanru some money will be earmarked for (metaphors) made up by the In- new Scientific American stitute, incorporating English advertising, which now costs idiom. $3500 for one advertisement. Examples: CACM Paper - Since 1982, JCB "criminal-quality-take", in and others have been writing and Lojban: "zekri ckaji lebna" revising a paper on the Loglan becomes the lujvo for "x1 machine grammar for intended decriminalizes x2". 28 "beyond-fast-record-use", "bancu sutra vreji pilno" is given to a lujvo meaning "x1 fast forwards past x2 on record/tape x3 on machine x4". (The word "vreji", and its Institute equivalent, refer to any record of an event, not merely sound recordings.) New Loglans? Nora noticed in passing that Barbara Hambly's recent 'Star Trek' novel, Ghost Walker, contains several references to a computer language called 'Loglan'. She didn't note the page numbers, so you will have to read the book for yourself. Hambly's book thus joins two books by Robert Heinlein, one by Robert Rimmer, and one by JCB that mention a fictional Loglan language. A new book, Loglan-88 is out, describing Loglan, but the language described has nothing to do with ours or the Institute's versions of the language. Professor Salwicki and others at the Polish Institute of Informatics has been developing a computer language for about 20 years that it calls 'Loglan'. The newly published book reports that the language is an ALGOL derivative and has object-ori- ented programming features. The book is published in hardbound by Springer-Verlag; look under 'Loglan' in Books in Print for more details. _________________________________ __________ 29 Features le lojbo se ciska Our Lojban text will start this issue with commented sentences, and then a commented letter. The sentences are offered by Rory Hinnen on behalf of a group of Lojbanists studying together in the Los Angeles area. (If you live in this area, and wish to join this group, please contact Rory at 818-796-8096 (home) or 818-354-8128 (work), or Gerald Koenig at 213-641-2905 (home) or 213-829-4156 (work). They are meeting irregularly, rotating the meeting place, because of the travel times, and offer to be very flexible in order to get new people to join in. In the following, Rory's submitted sentences are followed by an indented actual translation if it differs from his intended translation. Corrected Lojban and any comments from Bob LeChevalier are also indented. le cmalu mlatu crane le bardu gerku the small-cat in-front-of thing, the large-dog, ... [an incomplete sentence with no selbri] The small cat is in front of the large dog le cmalu mlatu cu crane le barda gerku ti poi gerku cu prami le mlatu This which dogs, loves the cat. [This dog loves the cat.] The dog loves the cat. le gerku cu prami le mlatu Bob: "ti" should be used only when pointing. The other and more common way to say "this dog" is "le vi gerku" .i ma prami le mlatu What loves the cat? .i ma se prami le mlatu What does the cat love? Bob: Excellent! mi cadzu vi le srasu I walk at the grass. I walk on the grass. mi cadzu le srasu Bob: The correction uses the Lesson 4a revised place structure of "cadzu", which specifies "on surface ..." Your version should be understandable, though. mi cadzu vi le srasu le ckule le ru'azda le klaji be va le zdani I walk on the grass to school from home via the street near the building. Bob: Using the baseline gismu list place structure of "cadzu", this looks fine. With the Lesson 4A change, just replace "cadzu" with "dzukla" ("walkingly-go") do cadzu mo You are a walking _____. You are walkingly _____ing. Where are you walking to? 30 do cadzu ma Bob: "cadzu mo" is a tanru. See above regarding "dzukla". le ckule se cadzu mi The school-walking_destination, I, ... To school I'm walking. le ckule cu se cadzu mi 31 *do cadzu fi mo [Ungrammatical - no translation possible.] Where are you walking from? do cadzu fi ma le ru'azda te cadzu mi The assuming-nest type of walked-from thing, me, ... I'm walking from home. [Actually: "From home, walk I". le re'azda cu te cadzu fi mi I'm not sure what the lujvo is intended to mean, unless it is a typo for "re'azda" ("human-nest"), which I assumed in the correction. "te" switches the x1 and x3 places, leaving x2 unchanged. do gasnu ma? What are you doing? [You do what?] mi gasnu lenu cilre la Lojban. .i do gasnu ma I'm doing the event of learning Lojban. What are you doing? Bob: .i'e xamgu mi na cilre la Lojban. .i mi zutse le stizu I'm not learning Lojban. I'm sitting in the chair. Rory: (Jim [Carter] had a lot of problems with the last little exchange. He said I was taking for granted the replication of the actor "mi". [in the "lenu" clause]) Bob: He's right in that the x1 place of "cilre" was elliptically unspecified. In natural usage, "mi" would be the obvious value, but formally the translation is: "I'm doing the event of ... learning Lojban. What are you doing?". The most frequent assumption in the pattern [x1 broda <lenu ... brode>] is to assume that the x1 is replicated in the ellipsis. But if the listener is unsure, it/she/he can always ask: ".i ma cilre la Lojban". ko catlu .i le crino nanmu Look! The green man ... Look! Green man! ko catlu .i crino nanmu Rory: (Jim made me put the "le" in there, and then convinced me he was right.) Bob: He's wrong. The "le" made it an incomplete sentence, a bare sumti, leaving the listener hanging for the rest of the sentence (.oi). There is no implicit or explicit selbri. ko sisti .i mi na catlu le crino nanmu Cease! I don't look at the green man. Rory: We argued for a while "le" or "lo" in the above sentence, but we eventually came to the conclusion that it didn't matter because of the negation. But without negation, I should go with "lo"). Bob: Either could be correct with or without a negation. "lo" claims that it really was a green man, rather than possibly a picture of one. Usually English speakers use "lo" for indefinites. "le" is definite - you DO have a specific one in mind, but it might only be being described as a man for 32 convenience of conversation. In this context, "le" would normally be taken as referring to the green man of the previous observative, since that is the logical 'thing described' that the speaker could expect the listener to assume. Note that I can't be sure of the intended meaning of this sentence for another reason, given the context. What is supposed to be "ceased", the discussion, talking about the green man, or something else? The second sentence also loses me, although it is quite grammatical. Is it a mistake for "I don't see ...", or is it missing the attitudinal ".aunai" (I don't want!). 33 Is Lojban Scientifically about that system to a scientist. Interesting I can see a few other possibilities: David Pautler (pautler@ils.nwu.edu), challenged a) in a highly complex system the scientific relevance of (which even an AL is), the artificial languages. The interaction of the design following is lojbab's (Bob features displays properties that LeChevalier's) response. are 'more than the sum of the parts'. Thus it is possible that David wrote: all language is merely a system I did not say that ALs have no comprised of a bunch of neurons good use. I said there's nothingreleasing neurotransmitters. particularly interesting about Biochemistry may eventually them (from a scientific viewpointdevise a complete explanation for ...) because they're artificial. the neuronic process (including Some interesting sociological genetic components), and we may behaviors may appear if these then say we "know the design languages come into widespread principles of the system". But use, perhaps even some in- we won't know the system, because teresting linguistic phenomena ifthe complexity of those neuronic enough spontaneous innovation interactions is so great that occurs (although AL enthusiasts knowing the pieces does not give seem to want to prevent this). a total understanding of the But there certainly doesn't system. This indeed may be what appear to be anything interestingdefines the concept of 'system'. about them now, because AL Knowing all the prescribed enthusiasts in this group prefer rules of an AL does not tell you to argue over which of several how that AL is used communica- (truly arbitrary) conventions aretively, and I don't mean in the "better". sociological sense. A sample I am willing to admit I am question: Given multiple ways of wrong about all this if some of communicating the same idea, do you AL enthusiasts can give the users of the language choose rest of us some good reasons why particular forms over others, and ALs are scientifically why? This is similar to a interesting. question that presumably is commonly asked about natural and later added in clarification:languages. I can come up with many other I still believe that knowing the sample questions of science that design principles of any system can be applied to the system of beforehand makes a scientific an AL that are not compromised by study of those principles 'knowing the design', but let's silly... move on. (Feel free to ask, though). lojbab's response: b) A simpler system, which can be more fully understood, may The added comment definitely serve as an excellent model for a clarifies the problem, especiallyless understood, more complex since it removes the loaded topicsystem. Thus the simpler system 'AL' from the question. I will could be examined for parallels answer primarily from the to hypotheses about the more standpoint of Lojban, though somecomplex system. Examination of of my points are applicable to the simpler system may suggest Esperanto and other ALs. properties to look for in the David is taking a very limited more complex system, or it may view of science, to presume that even suggest hypotheses that can the design principles of a systembe tested in the more complex are the only interesting thing system. 34 A 'hot' topic in parts of the c) Another aspect of a simple Lojban community is whether the system is that it is easier to language has or should have, an perform experiments on than a underlying semantic theory. If more complex system. There are one exists, it is certainly not fewer variables, and if the as developed or prescribed as thesystem is 'designed', some things syntactic design and theory. that are variables in complex Filtering out syntactic ambiguitysystems are in effect tunable allows a more direct examination constants in the simple, of semantic ambiguities, in- carefully-designed system. You cluding the properties of can then rerun the experiment modification and restriction, with minor changes to explore the resolution of anaphora, and effects of those variables. identification of ellipses. Any Experimental linguistics of semantic theories proposed for this sort is a virtually natural language can be looked atunthinkable possibility with the in terms of semantic usage in thenatural languages. The Sapir- simpler Lojban system. Whorf Hypothesis is not really As a 'model of a natural testable in the natural languages language', it seems likely that since we can't control any any theory NOT true of Lojban is variables, and we don't know what at least suspicious with regard things about a language might be to natural language, thus determining to a culture. Sapir- allowing partial verification of Whorf may be more testable when theories (not complete - I would you can reduce or even control never say that ALs should be the variables with a language studied to the exclusion of like Lojban. Let me be specific: natural languages, but rather in Lojban is a predicate language, relation to them). If the theorywith no nouns, verbs, or is true of natural language, thenadjectives. What are the lin- you have found evidence that guistic (communicative) Lojban is in some way unnatural. properties of such a system? The Then you try to explain which of answer has been partially the (fully-known) design featuresexplored through symbolic logic. of Lojban causes this un- But do people thinking naturalness. By counterexample linguistically in any way mimic that design feature is not a the processes of formal logic? feature of natural languages. What effects would a formal- You've learned something about logic-based language have on natural language by studying an those linguistic thinking artificial one. processes. Is the resulting As another example, pragmatic language susceptible to the same effects can be more easily analysis as natural language in recognized in the simpler Lojban terms of the various formal system, and can be clearly systems that have been developed identified as pragmatic. Thus, by linguists over the past few insights about pragmatic effects decades? may be more visible in Lojban, Given that natural language insights that would then be processing in computers usually tested in the natural languages. involves converting natural language to some kind of predicate form in which deductions can be made, the validity of predicate logic as a tool for such analysis is already accepted. But how to you identify the logical deductions that a human being makes from a natural language statement. If thinking in Lojban, the human is 35 already thinking using predicate instead of the construct. It logic structures; thus the seems that all manner of deduction process is much more linguistic universals could be plain. investigated in this way. Let me pose an experiment. Take even a few children during My remaining points are not the critical period of language necessarily specific to the learning and teach them this 'system' nature of a language, artificial language (at the same but deal with David's original time as they learn their question on whether artificial traditional language). Do they languages are scientifically become truly bilingual? If they interesting. In general they are as fluently communicative in rely on the assumption argued the AL as they are in their above that a model of a system is natural language, then the AL is valuable for learning about the a suitable linguistic model. system. Then, ANY theory of language that cannot extend to cover the fea- d) I've mentioned only child tures of the AL is inadequate. learning as revealing the You could perform a series of essential nature of language, experiments with ever more exoticbecause this is what many artificial languages (obviously linguists concentrate on. But you need new speakers for each there is also the important test). Sooner or later, either applied linguistics problems of the model breaks and the AL is noteaching foreign languages. It longer acquirable by children is much easier to test a method and/or communicative as a or theory of vocabulary language, or the theory breaks, teaching/learning with an and you've learned where to look artificial language than with a for improvements in the theory. natural language; I don't think With only natural languages, the statement that ALs are more you have to devise theories basedquickly (I didn't say easily - on the available data, and then which is a subjective question) go look in other natural learned then NLs is particularly languages for confirmation or controversial; there have been refutation. But this isn't the experiments verifying this in the optimal kind of experimentation literature for decades. because you really cannot plan The pragmatic problems of the experiment or control the language learning are alone variables (the other language mayjustification into researching have the same apparent feature using ALs. But ALs may provide through a totally different pro- the solution as well as the means cess that you won't recognize of testing. because you aren't looking for It seems to be well accepted it.) that in learning a second A language like Lojban is such language and then learning a an ideal test bed for third, you learn the third MUCH experimentation, because it is more quickly than the second. flexible; you can evolve slightlyThe example I've heard is this: different versions of the language very easily by simply Assume that it takes 4 years changing some features. Forbid a to learn French and then 2 to given construct in the prescrip- learn German thereafter; and tion, and do not teach it to a vice versa. Let us assume that child. Does the child develop you can learn an artificial that construct anyway by analogy language in 1 year to a to other languages known, or does comparable degree as you can the child successfully adapt to learn French. whatever other processes you've Then you can learn the AL designed into the language and German in 3 years instead 36 of 4, and all three languages I don't claim this example as a in 5 years instead of 6. This fact - it should be easily gains a year EVEN IF YOU NEVER testable in a controlled experi- AGAIN USE THE AL. ment, and this seems much more scientific than arguments about what ALs and NLs are 'easier to learn'. e) Lojban has one feature designed to explore a less- understood aspect of language - the expression of emotion. Lojban allows expressive communication of emotions in words without suprasegmentals (this presumably unlike all natu- ral languages, but not entirely, as many languages have a limited set of indicators of attitude in the form of interjections and some discursive function words e.g. 'but'). Can human beings manipulate the symbols of emotion in the same way they manipulate the comparable symbols of non- emotional expression? There is a whole range of experimental questions raised by this design element, probably the most 'unnatural' element of Lojban's design. f) The latter points to the one other aspect of a well-designed artificial language of scientific interest and value to linguistics - as a tool of analysis. I present an example, based on the 1991 Scientific American Library book The Science of Words, by George A. Miller of Princeton. In the book, a picture caption notes that Nootka (a Pacific Northwest language) has the single word: "inikwihl'minik'isit" meaning the equivalent of the entire English sentence "Several small fires were burning in the house." I won't presume to know any more about Nootka than I've just told you, but in Lojban, I can express that sentence paralleling the English: so'i cmalu fagri puca jelca vine'i le Many small fires were-then burning at-within the 37 prezda This order is also expressible person-nest. in Lojban: and analytically as a single word fagykemprezdanerso'icmapru (though not with the same fire-type_of-person-nest- structure as Nootka) inside-many_some-small- past_thing/event prezdane'ikemcmafagyso'ikemprun unje'a I don't know which of the two person-house-inside-type_of- orders more accurately conveys small-fire-many_some-type_of- how the Nootka speaker thinks of previous-burning the concept expressed by the word, or whether others would be (Yes, I can say it!) better still. The Lojban in either case more Actually, according to Miller, accurately tracks the semantics the Nootka breaks down as: of the Nootka, demonstrating the inadequacy of the English - the inikw -ihl -'minih - actual word as broken out did not 'is -it require two separate particles fire/burn in-the-house plural for fire and burn as did the diminutive past- English equivalent, and the English translation used the more tense complicated tense "were-burning" instead of the simpler, and presumably more accurate "burnt". (I'll plainly admit that I'm relying on the given explanations by Miller, which are in English, but it seems clear that in translating the word-sentence into English there is a considerable ambiguity introduced. I won't claim that Lojban can express everything in the natural form of any language. Lojban has a less-marked syntactic word- order, and expressing other orders requires marking particles that would not be found in the source language. Thus there is a tradeoff between semantic representation and syntactic representation. Still, I think a convincing case can be made that, as a predicate language, Lojban is a much more effective tool at studying both the forms and semantics of other languages than is English, which has its own cultural, syntactic and semantic complexities to gum up the analysis. This is especially true for analysis by non-native English speaking linguists - if there is any place where there is a justification for an interna- tional, minimal-culture language, 38 it is when linguists from how the language creolizes in different native language contact with those other backgrounds try to perform and languages. Because of the speed communicate their linguistic of learning, artificial languages analyses. should tend to show effects more quickly (by being mastered to a g) There is also the 'other' communicative level more tool aspect of an artificial quickly). Anecdotal evidence language, in computer and artifi-about Esperanto supports this cial intelligence (AI) idea. applications. I mentioned the Does this mean that the similarity in c) above between conclusions are absolutely valid Lojban and the internal for natural language evolutionary representations used in natural processes? I don't claim so. language processing by computers.But again, we are performing A predicate language like experiments with a model, Lojban should be especially somewhat idealized, of a natural amenable to AI processes - the language. Unlike a paper- programmers are familiar with theoretic model (as all predicate language expression andlinguistic theories must manipulation, and often store theinherently be), this is a model data in predicate form internallythat can be experimented with for manipulation. With Lojban, using live speakers. Provided such storage becomes a fairly that we understand the model as trivial process. it evolves, that understanding If Lojban is proven by much more approximates an under- experiment (per above) to have standing of natural language as the systemic properties of a time goes on. natural language, and is easier to implement in computational i) The large majority of linguistics research problems, itlanguages have some degree, more serves as a tool to bridge those or less, of prescription. In two disciplines, leading to more addition, some 'natural' rapid and effective natural languages, like modern Hebrew, language processing. But only ifformal Swahili, and some it is tried. Even if it proves standardized dialects (e.g. less than ideal, I have little Mandarin, which has been noted as doubt that study of natural lan- being related to but not guage using computational identical to the Beijing linguistic techniques and a dialect), are not all that far Lojban-based tool will be from being true artificial productive in ways not possible languages, but are much more with any natural language. interesting to linguists. A (In effect, this argument is predominantly prescribed language the same as f), except that would seem an especially instead of two different-natural-effective tool for studying the language speakers trying to effects of prescription on lan- communicate about language, you guage development and use (again, have a human and a computer, who I refer to linguistic and not obviously speak different native sociological effects). languages, trying to Such studies may aid in first- communicate.) language education as well as second-language acquisition. h) A highly prescribed languageThey may also aid in analyzing is an ideal test bed for the development of different examining the processes of registers (usages based on social language evolution. In the case class and situation) of a single of an AL like Lojban, as the language: such registers can be speaking community in each interpreted as reactions to culture grows, you can observe 39 prescriptive environments that 5. Add "hemp", to include natural constrain language use. rope, burlap, marijuana, and hashish - "marna"; None of these scientific 6. Add "protein" - "lanbi"; applications of Lojban inherently7. Add "buckwheat" - "xruba"; requires a large fluent body of 8. Add "cassava", to include taro speakers, or any solely-native and yam, and other starchy speaker of that tongue. If any roots (not tubers) - "samcu"; of the less scientific applica- 9. Add "sorghum" - "sorgu"; tions of Lojban serve to justify 10.-11. Add "magenta" and "cyan" it developing such a speaker as the missing two subtractive base, the nature of Lojban's use- primary colors - "nukni", fulness as a model will change. "cicna"; New applications, as yet not 12. Add "North America", the really predictable, will turn up, continent, as distinct from aided by our no doubt increased "merko", referring to the U.S. understanding of language. But - "bemro"; the model, even if well under- 13. Add "South America", the stood, no longer is as simple, continent, as distinct from and new Loglans and other "xispo", referring to Latin experimental linguistic tools, America - "ketco"; all artificial languages, will be14. Add "Antarctica" - "dzipo"; developed to take the next step. 15. Add "glimmering" to cover the I have hopefully given a bit of concepts of morning and evening food for thought, yet with only a twilight - "murse"; few hours preparation. I also 16. Add "decrease" in parallel to only thought about this as a revised meaning of "increase" somewhat an outsider to the - "jdika"; profession of linguistics. With 17. Add a different gismu to be a different point-of-view others the inverse of "panzi" - should be able to find many more "rorci"; questions of scientific interest 18. Add "elder/ancestor" for using an AL like Lojban either as family members of generations a model, an experimental test preceding the parents bed, or a tool. And if even a (including non-direct line, the small fraction of these ideas are relationship is more so- useful, then ALs have a valid cial/ethnic than biological). scientific role in linguistics. Gender would be added via tanru, as would explicit _________________________________ biological lineage. The ______________ conversion would give "de- scendant" as well as Summary of gismu/rafsi Official "grandkids" in the broadest Changes sense - "dzena"; 19. Add "aunt/uncle/godparent" New gismu as approved in June for non-lineal (socio-ethnic) 1990 (see JL13): family members of the parental generation. The conversion 1. Add "daytime", changing the would give "niece/nephew" - keyword for "day" to "full day" "famti"; - "dinri"; 20. Add "cousin" for non- 2. Add "virtue", as distinct from immediate (socio-ethnic) family "good", to parallel with "evil" members of the same generation. - "vrude"; The generalized family 3. Add "citrus" - "nimre"; relationship is still expressed 4. Add "cabbage", to include by "lanzu", which can be broccoli, cauliflower, and modified via tanru - "tamne". perhaps lettuce - "kobli"; 40 The following shows the new gismuketco ket tco South actually made, which may be addedAmerican to your gismu lists. Quechua x1 reflects South American gismu rafsi keyword culture/nationality/geography clue / in aspect x2 synonyms kobli cabbage bemro bem North cole- / American cauli-, broccoli, berti kale, merko kraut x1 reflects North American x1 is a quantity of culture/nationality/geography cabbage/leafy vegetable of in aspect x2 species/strain x2 cicna cyan lanbi protein / albumin / turquoise amino x1 is cyan/turquoise/green-blue x1 is a quantity of protein of type x2 dinri daytime / marna hemp daylight marijuana x1 is a daytime of day x2 at / jute, location x3 cannabis x1 is a quantity of dzena dze elder hemp/marijuana/jute of / species/strain x2 grandparent, ancestor x1 is an elder/ancestor of x2 murse by bond/tie/ degree x3 glimmering / dzipo zip dzi zi'o twilight, dawn, Antarctican penumbra dzucipni x1 is a twilight/dawn of day x2 (penguin?) at location x3 x1 reflects Antarctican culture/nationality/ geography nimre mre citrus in aspect x2 lime / famti aunt or lemon, citric uncle x1 is a quantity of citrus / (fruit, tree, etc.) of godparent species/strain x2 x1 is an aunt/uncle of x2 by bond/tie x3 nukni nuk magenta fuchsin / jdika decrease fuchsia / reduce x1 is magenta/fuchsia/red-blue x1 is decreased/reduced in property x2 by amount x3 rorci ror procreate / engender, sire, dam, beget x1 engenders/procreates/begets x2 with coparent x3 samcu cassava / taro, manioc, tapioca, 41 yam xruba xub buckwheat x1 is a quantity of rhubarb / cassava/taro/manioc/tapioca/yamsorrel grass (starchy root) of x1 is a quantity of species/strain x2 buckwheat/rhubarb/sorrel grass of species/strain x2 sorgu sog sorghum x1 is a quantity of sorghum of The following are rafsi changes species/strain x2 needed for the above changes. In both cases, these are words that tamne cousin had been given an extra rafsi x1 is a cousin of x2 by "because it was there", not bond/tie x3 because it was needed. vrude vud vu'e virtue dotco dot do'o German x1 is virtuous by standard x2 delete rafsi tco merli mel mei measure delete rafsi mre The following is a previously approved change to the gismu baseline. ckamu- less deleted, replaced by: mleca mec me'a less The following are previously approved changes to the gismu keyword baseline. mukti muk mu'i motive was purpose djedi ded dje dei full day was day gismu gim gi'u root word was primitive tanru phrase compound was metaphor lujvo luv jvo affix compound was cpd predicate Several cmavo were newly assigned rafsi, but in some cases where a rafsi might be useful, there was no rafsi even remotely similar to the cmavo available. The following lujvo-making con- ventions are proposed as solutions for these cmavo used in lujvo. Note that there may be lujvo with these patterns that are not convention-based 42 cu'o preceded by number dzi dzipo rafsi is a mre nimre probability rather mre- merli than modification tco ketco fi'u with number rafsi tco- dotco is interpreted as bem bemro fraction rather than biz bi'o or bi'i modification caz ca'a ka'e handled by kakne caz- cadzu (retains dzu) li'i lifrysucty- in firstcel ce position cez ce'i mu'e mulnynun- in firstdaz da'a position dum du'u pu'u prucynun- in firstjoz jo'e position kep ke'e si'o sidbysucty- in firstket ketco position kuz ku'a su'u sucty- in first mec mleca position mem mei za'i zastynun- in firstmom moi position nal na'e zu'o zuktynun- in firstnal- na position nar na nuk nukni The following is then a summarypez pe'a (figurative lujvo of ALL changes to the rafsi list - totally since the gismu baseline list was unpredictable place published. You may wish to manu- structure) ally update your gismu lists and piv pi'u rafsi lists. New lists will be piz pi published by the end of the year.puz pu'i ror rorci ( - after a rafsi means the rafsirov roi was deassigned for reuse.) sog sorgu soj so'a CVC CCV CVV cmavo/gismu sop so'e sor so'i (also has "so'i" ce'o ce'o added this one is for co'e co'e making a series) fo'a- forca (retains sor- skori (retains sko, for, fro) ko'i) fo'a fo'a sos so'o fo'e fo'e sot so'u fo'i fo'i vud vrude ke'e ke'e xub xruba le'e le'e zip dzipo lo'e lo'e me'a mleca I received a question about the no'e no'e listing in the rafsi change nu'o nu'o summary about conventions for to'e to'e some abstractions. So let me ve'e ve'e explain further. vu'e vrude For the example, we will use za'o za'o "salci", which has the place ze'e ze'e structure "x1 celebrates x2 by ze'o ze'o doing/being x3". zi'o dzipo "nu salci" is an abstraction zo'a zo'a selbri: "x1 is the event of (x1S zo'i zo'i celebrates x2S by doing x3S)". dze dzena 43 To make this into a lujvo, we be representing the abstraction have reserved a rafsi for 'nu', since there may be more obvious and in this case the lujvo-makingnon-abstraction meanings. The algorithm gives "nunsalci": "x1 convention however tells you how is the celebration-event of x2 to make a lujvo that will at celebrating x3 by doing x4". Allleast suggest the abstraction we do is renumber the places. rather than force you to try to We also have rafsi reserved forguess randomly how to do so. In 'ka', 'ni', and 'jei' among the general, the convention is close abstractors. We do not have to the most obvious rafsi for the four Aristotelian interpretation anyway. subcategories of 'nu' events: As for nunsalci, the places of 'states', 'activities', 'process-the unabstracted selbri are es', and 'achievements'. Nor do renumbered shifted by 1. For a we have rafsi for other members couple of abstractors (ni and jei of NU, including the idea ab- come to mind) with more than one stractor "si'o", the experience place in the abstraction selbri, abstractor "li'i", etc. the trailing places are added to The convention described says the end. that for those members of NU that do not have rafsi, we will use a This convention is not part of combination of rafsi for related any baseline, and is quite open gismu in specific positions for your comments. Indeed, we'd (generally at the beginning of like to see some people try the lujvo) to indicate the making lujvo using them and using abstraction. We don't assume them in example sentences. that all lujvo in that form will _________________________________________________ le lojbo se ciska (continued) Coranth D'Gryphon sent me a letter - an excellent beginning writing effort, which I will share with all of you since it brings out some neat points. I'm sure Coranth's ego will stand public correction, and all-in-all he did an outstanding effort even if I've commented it to death. I encourage beginning people to write to each other in Lojban, preferably with English translation enclosed. Send your first writing to me (Bob) at the la lojbangirz. address, and I'll match you with someone based on your skill level (and possibly your interests). A suggestion for a first letter is either a list of sentences or a self-description. There is NO BETTER WAY to learn the language than to see how others misunderstand your attempts to express in the language. And if communication actually occurs, you've achieved the purpose of language, which is more important than being correct. If you can figure out most of what Coranth was TRYING to say on the following (there are errors and even typo- nonexistent words that can make some parts virtually impossible to a novice), you are ready. Following is Coranth's uncorrected original text and his translation. My comments follow. coi doi lojbab. le lojbo ckule cu xamgu .i di'u cu pluka mi .i re le ci tardi cu djica troci le nu la Lojban cu se djuno .i ji'a .i'ou'anai mi pu skami ciska piso'i le ti fasnu tebe'i do .i mi'u pu fonxa tavla 44 .i la lojbo gerna cu frili mi .i le lojbo valsi na go'i .i mi cu troci le nu la'edi'u cu se djuno .i .au.a'o mi baze'e djuno roru 45 .i paupei la logflac. cu kakne le sidju di'e .inaja jei di'u .i pe'u.e'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a .i ju'e ki'e co'o lojbab. la korant. Hi Bob The Lojban-school is good. This pleases me. 2 of the 3 students desire-ingly try-to-attain the-state-of Lojban being-known. I regret/sorrow-at I have-before not computer-written much-of these events to-you. Ditto have-before not telephone-talked. Lojban grammar is easy for me. The-set-of Lojban words is not. I try-to-attain the-state-of them-previous being-known. I hope-desire-that I will-after-some-time know them-all. Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help? The-following only-if the-previous-sentence is-true: Request-please : you (imper) talk-to me about the-process-of getting them. I conclude. thanks. bye. Coranth ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Commentary. The unindented text and translation are Coranth's versions: coi doi lojbab. Hi Bob le lojbo ckule cu xamgu The Lojban-school is good. Both excellent. [Coranth, by the way was attempting to tutor some students in Lojban in the Boston area, which is another group that is ripe for group study as the LA people are doing. .i di'u cu pluka mi This pleases me. You translated the Lojban to English correctly, but the English is ambiguous. A more exact English translation of your sentence is: The last sentence pleases me. Now you have a right to be pleased about the last sentence: it was well done. But I suspect that you were trying to 46 express that the state of affairs described by the last sentence is what pleased you, in which case you wanted to say: .i la'edi'u [cu] pluka mi. It is probably useful to memorize "la'edi'u" as a single word; you will use it in an English translation far more often than "di'u" alone, unless you are writing essays about language. 47 .i re le ci tardi cu djica troci le nu la Lojban cu se djuno 2 of the 3 students desire-ingly try-to-attain the-state-of Lojban being-known Except "tadni" for "tardi", excellent. I explicitly check or have Nora check all of my writings before sending them out to make sure I don't make word mistakes. Until you master the vocabulary, you should do an extra check whenever possible. Of course, though, I would rather you write Lojban without checking the words, than not write Lojban at all. .i ji'a .i'ou'anai mi pu skami ciska piso'i le ti fasnu tebe'i do I regret/sorrow-at I have-before not computer-written much-of these events to-you. A great teaching sentence. It was grammatical and I understood what you intended, but you made lots of little errors. You left out translating the "ji'a" ("additionally"), and I'm not sure how it applies; if you are trying to non- specifically link this sentence to the previous one ".ije" is a logical joining, and ".i" is the simple run-on sentence "and". The attitudinal "appreciation+loss" does not convey to me your English - what did you "lose"; it sounds like the type of emotion one might feel when a trusted and valued employee left the company, or maybe what you might say in a letter of resignation. Possibilities are the simple ".u'u", or ".i'anaise'i" (or attaching the ".i'anai" differently: "mi .i'anai pu ..." which means roughly: "I, damn me, previously ..." Your English sentence is a negation - you have NOT PREVIOUSLY written much-of these events, but this negation is not in the sentence. You could do so with "na", but I would prefer the more exact "punai". "ciska" is "inscribe"; you clearly noticed that its place structure wasn't that useful and used "tebe'i". "cusku" is usually more applicable; writing is just a medium (which could go in the "ve cusku" place if it was important). "tavla" is also useful here; it is not limited to verbal expression (which is "bacru"), and it has a 'talkee' too. Finally, as implied by your "tebe'i", you could have used "benji" with "le datni/se skicu be le fasnu" or more simply "le fasnu datni". "piso'i" is a fraction of a whole. If you are treating the events as separate reportable instances, you wanted "so'i le fasnu" = "many of the events". If you wanted to talk about them as a mass, you wanted "piso'i lei fasnu" = "much of the mass of events". Probably the latter is better. "ti" as a demonstrative does not work well in letters, and in any case I doubt if you could point to the "ti" that 'possesses' the events. "ti" is a sumti and in that position "le ti fasnu" it meant "this thing's event(s)". For "this" in such a sumti you usually want the locator "vi": ("le vi fasnu" = "the here event"). Now it turns out that a different possessive might actually have been appropriate here: "le de'u fasnu" = "the earlier sentence's events", or possibly, "le ru fasnu" which in your writing can only refer to "the Lojban class"; therefore "the Lojban-class's events". Of course, "ru" alone might have been clear since you would have 48 been writing about the class as well as the events associated with the class. Adding all these comments together, I might have written the sentence as: .ije mi .i'anai punai .uu skami cusku le de'u fasnu do And I, (Damn me!) didn't (Regret!) computer-express the earlier sentence's events to you. .i mi'u pu fonxa tavla Ditto have-before not telephone-talked. Again missing the negation, only it is more blatant here. You said that we have talked. You don't say what we haven't talked about. Since you and I have telephone talked before, you are putting a lot of semantic load on that "mi'u" to convey that you want me to transfer the subject of talking from the previous sentence (as well as the other places). I like "je" or "ji'a" here instead of "mi'u" though it seems as interesting concept to use a "ditto" discursive to copy the sumti from the previous sentence, while changing the selbri. Hmmm. "je", with no discursive, linking a specified-sumti bridi with an observative, does strongly suggest the sumti copying. I do this a lot, according to Nora. There are also more obvi- ous forms, based on a compound sentence using "gi'e", but I won't go into that here. My attempts: .ije punai fonxa tavla And didn't telephone talk. OR .ije punai fonxa tavla do le de'u fasnu And didn't telephone talk to you about the earlier sentence's events. You also could have combined the last two sentences into one, but the negated tense makes the translation apparently illogical for English speakers, who implicitly convert the selbri from "and" to "or" under DeMorgan's Law. This is not recommended until people can truly think in Lojban: .ije mi .i'anai punai .u'u skami je fonxa cusku le de'u fasnu do And I, (Damn me!) didn't (Regret!) computer-(or)-phone express the earlier sentence's events to you. .i la lojbo gerna cu frili mi Lojban grammar is easy for me. .i le lojbo valsi na go'i The-set-of Lojban words is not. You are correct that "na" does not require "cu". Excellent. .i mi cu troci le nu la'edi'u cu se djuno I try-to-attain the-state-of them-previous being-known "la'edi'u" here makes your sentence mean: 49 I try-to-attain the-state-of (the-set-of Lojban words is not [easy for me]) being-known. You wanted "ri" to get your translation: .i le lojbo valsi na go'i .i mi troci lenu ri cu se djuno. .i .au.a'o mi baze'e djuno roru I hope-desire-that I will-after-some-time know them-all I corrected for publication what I presume to be a typo ".ava'o" in your original. You wanted "ze'eba" instead of "baze'e", which means here "I will for some interval in the future know all of them." Examine the parallel examples in "tense*" in the cmavo 'Lexeme order list', which are based on "pu". "ra" is more correct than "ru" here; counting backwards in your version, "ri" is "la'edi'u" and "ra" is "le lojbo valsi". In my rewritten versions, "ri" is still "le lojbo valsi". (See the following article for details regarding this comment.) Given the new place structure of "djuno", I think you want "tu'a roru".) .i paupei la logflac. cu kakne le sidju di'e .inaja jei di'u Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help? The-following only-if the-previous-sentence is-true: This one was fun. I had to write most of the following before I knew what you were trying. "paupei" isn't wrong but the "pau" is superfluous. "pau" is used to let the listener reader know that a question is coming up later in the sentence that might not be expected, forewarning that attention is needed so that the answer can be provided. When the question is the next word, the warning is redundant, but not wrong. I think that your desired question was probably ".iapei" or "pe'ipei", asking about belief or opinion. I'm sure you wanted "le nu sidju di'e". Otherwise "le sidju" ("the helper") is the x2 place of "kakne" and "di'e" is the x3 place. But as for what it means: Your second sentence isn't grammatical; you may have wanted "di'u jetnu" based on your English. But more pressing is that you have one awesome self-referential sentence loop here, and I can't honestly say I understand the English any better than the Lojban. It's often a good idea to put a colloquial English translation along with a literal one if the structure is convoluted as in this case. I'll rephrase your English to reflect what you said (making the corrections already noted): .i la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju di'e .inaja di'u jetnu Logflash is able at helping the following sentence. [Only if] the previous sentence is true. Does this make the problem clearer? You have a logical connective that makes some funky claims about the truth conditions of the combined pair of sentences. (I think you get a tautology of a sort: ".inaja" here effectively causes "not X or X", where "X" is the "di'u" of the second sentence. 50 If the first is true the second must be; if the first is false, so is the second.) Then the second sentence is talking about the truth of the first sentence, while the first sentence is talking about Logflash helping with the second sentence. [Sounds of mental explosion as circuits are fried .oicairo'e]. .ua.ue ki'anai [I think I finally understand!] I think I figured out now what you were trying to do (but only after all that analysis. My clue is how you grouped your English with a line separating: Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help. The-following only-if the-previous-sentence is-true: Request-please : you (imper) talk-to me about the- process-of getting them. This makes it clear that "di'e" is supposed to be part of the same sentence as the "di'u", and actually refers to the sentence afterwards. At which point all becomes clear: ".i" is an almost perfect sentence terminator. It says that the following sentence is about to start, making all of the 'elidable' terminators of constructs shorter than sentence scope (i.e. "vau", "kei", "ku", etc.) actually elidable at the end of a sentence. BUT the ".i" can ONLY go between sentences. It seems you were trying to use ".inaja" as the selbri. But the "di'e" is irrevocably part of the first of two sentences in this case, and I merely spent my effort trying to figure out how it fit in. But then, that analysis pointed out the need for "lenu sidju" vs. "le sidju" - which I think is what you wanted; I might have missed it if not for the hanging "di'e". At which point I can say GOOD TRY, especially since we nowhere cover logical connectives in text materials. But: The members of "GOhA", "me"+"KOhA", and PA+MOI, are the only cmavo or cmavo compounds that come to mind as being valid as a selbri (there may be some complex equivalents of these, too. Lojban logical connectives connect constructs; they are not in themselves selbri. If you want a predicated connective, you need a gismu or tanru. We have provided "kanxe", "vlina", "dunli" and "nibli", and I think the latter is what you want here: .i pe'ipei la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju .i di'e se nibli di'u (Opinion-question?) Logflash is able at helping. The following is entailed by the preceding. (Nora would stop here; she likes short simple sentences, but I'll muck things up a little more.) At which point we can actually eliminate the 2nd sentence entirely, using a causal connective: 51 .i .pe'ipei la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju .iseni'ibo pe'u.e'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a which translates as: Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help? Necessitating therefore: request-please: you (imperative) talk-to me about the-process-of getting them. It is even possible to compress this to the single sentence (in which case the "pau" is useful, too): .i pau la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju pe'ipei kei seni'i lenu pe'ue'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a Question follows: Logflash is-able to help (Your opinion please), which (the ability) would necessitate therefore (I request-please) that you (imperative) talk-to me about the-process-of getting them. Note the "kei" to terminate the "lenu" clause. Without it, the now-more-complex sentence means something only roughly similar (note the angle brackets): Question follows: Logflash is-able at <helping (your opinion please) thus necessitating therefore (I request-please) that you (imperative) talk-to me about the-process-of getting them.> There is no problem asking a Lojban question about a sentence while exploring the logical consequences of its truth. Lojban presumes that, logically speaking, the truth value of a question is the same as that of the sentence with the question satisfied (the blank filled in, etc.) Thus you can ask my opinion on the first sentence, while telling me what to do if it is true. Note that you have to move the "pe'ipei" question itself around when you try to ask it all in one sentence, so that I clearly know that you are asking about Logflash's ability to help, and not whether (its ability to help necessitates talking about getting it). One other comment. Just as "LogFest" Lojbanizes poorly, so does "LogFlash". "*gf" is not a permissible medial pair in Lojban, since "g" is voiced and "f" is unvoiced. Lojbanize it as "logyflac." or "logvlac." .i pe'u.e'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a Request-please : you (imperative) talk-to me about the-process-of getting them. An excellent non-trivial concluding sentence, with only two minor flaws. "pe'u" is a vocative member of COI, and expects a name or description afterwards - you can't quite use it like an attitudinal, unless you close it with "do'u". Without the "do'u", the vocative absorbs "ko" as the target of "pe'u", and you have approximately: "Request-of-you (imperative), that (observative: someone unspecified) talks- to-me about ...". This still gets your point across. However, with the "ko" absorbed, there is no sumti to separate, and the "cu" is not needed or allowed. Secondly, "ko'a" is undefined. Presuming that you mean Logflash, I would simply repeat "la logyflac." Alternatives are the vague "ra" or assigning "ko'a" with "goi" - a waste for one reference. 52 As an answer to your letter, call or write again regarding getting LogFlash. I of course believe it is helpful - it is the ONLY reason I can lojbo cusku with any skill. .i ju'e ki'e co'o lojbab. I conclude. thanks. bye. la korant. Coranth You wanted "mi'e korant." for complete grammaticality. Overall an excellent first effort. It better than others argues for some explanation of logical connectives at an early stage. I will modify my textbook outline as a result. Keep it up! 53 Cleft Place Structures and sumti- Thus, I'll explain some of the Raising problem, give simple examples of a couple of the points which you A minor excursion in "how to may be able to use and general- say it in Lojban" turned into a ize, but otherwise will just try major philosophical examination to explain the changes. If you of language and metalanguage (howdon't understand just yet, don't we talk about language) this worry - we carried on spring. The result of this conversations in Lojban for a endeavor was a series of minor couple of years without even word changes - mostly additions noticing the problem. of cmavo, one minor grammar (Difficulty warning: this change, and a couple of major material in places relies on all philosophical realizations about of the contents of the draft language that shook us to the un-textbook lessons. You may not derpinnings and will have a understand everything that profound effect on how we teach follows without them, but I've the language. tried to make the explanation Unfortunately, we can't take independent of your knowledge of the space here to discuss the Lojban as much as possible.) question in depth, including the You may know that Lojban has at various rationales for decisions least two major kinds of sumti made and not made. The (arguments) in its bridi (pre- discussion would be as long and dications). Only two are intricate as the negation paper relevant here. I will call these published last year, only more 'simple' and 'abstract' sumti. confusing. Instead, we'll try to A simple sumti is comparable to outline what was decided, what in English are 'common emphasizing effects on Lojban nouns' - objects that you can expression. point to. Examples include "le English does not have very stizu" ("the chair"), "le zarci" effective tools for talking about(the market). But because Lojban language. You have to teach a doesn't distinguish nouns, verbs, whole specialized vocabulary for and adjectives, we can also have any aspect of language - a "le blanu" ("the blue thing"), or vocabulary that reads like jargon"le kurji" ("the one taking care without a great deal of of ...") as simple sumti. All of explanation. Classic problems the examples so far are what we are how to describe the meaning call 'descriptions' in the Log- of words like "of" and "the", or lan/Lojban project. In a how to describe the meaning of a description, a selbri (the form of the verb "to be" combinedpredicate word or phrase that with the suffix "-ing" on a verb defines the relationship) is without merely giving an example.converted into a sumti, omitting However, for those questions, the x1 place, using a descriptor you at least know the answer, word like "le" or "lo". The de- even if you can't easily phrase scription then refers to some- it. Topics like 'indirect thing intended that would fill questions' (which are not really that x1 place. Thus "le klama" questions at all), and 'object is something that would fill the raising' (sumti raising when x1 place of "x1 comes/goes to x2 generalized in Lojban) are topicsfrom x3 via x4 using mode x5". for linguistic researchers. An abstract sumti looks and Everyday people use these acts differently. In an abstract linguistic features all the time sumti, you take a whole bridi without realizing it AND, even predication (including the x1), realizing it, find it difficult i.e., a whole sentence, and turn to paraphrase and explain what it into a sumti. That sumti then they are doing, and why they represents the abstract state or understand what it means. event of the relation occurring 54 ("nu"), the characteristic prop- many ways. An abstraction has erty(ies) of that relation the abstract marker from NU on ("ka"), or any of several other the front and an elidable abstractions, including "du'u" (aterminator "kei" on the back, to predication about the relation), keep the language unambiguous, and "jei" (the truth value of allowing you to know whether a such a relation). These others selbri is part of the abstraction may be found in selma'o NU in or is the main selbri of the your cmavo list. sentence, or whether a sumti is a What is hidden in most usage ofsumti of the main sentence bridi, these abstract sumti is that we or of the abstraction bridi. have created an entirely new These descriptions and abstrac- selbri relationship encompassing tions are long, possibly complex the abstracted bridi and its in grammar, and generally a pain places as the selbri. For most to repeat when you are saying a abstractions, this new selbri haslot about them. So we have only one place, though "jei", symbols or 'anaphora' to stand which talks about truth values, for them. You may be familiar has an x2 place for epistemology,with "ko'a" which can be assigned and "ni", and amount, has a to represent any sumti, whether scale. When you use one of theseabstract or simple, as well as abstractions in a sumti, you are "mi" ("me") and "do" ("you"). again filling in the x1 place of All of these are 'anaphora' - one selbri, but at a higher, morewords that stand for something abstract level than for a simple previously defined or obvious sumti. Thus there is a parallel from the context. There are a between these different levels oflot of others. One other kind of sumti such that both are tied anaphora is names. When you use back to a bridi relation with onethe name "lojbab." for me, the unspecified place. name represents me for discussion An example of an abstract bridiin a sentence. "la lojbab." is is: thus grammatically equivalent to "do" and "le nu mi klama le zarci x1 is the event ("nu") of [ku] [vau] [kei] [ku]". <xk1 comes/goes (klama) to xk2 We can also use names as from xk3 via xk4 using mode anaphora for events and other xk5> abstraction sumti. "The Renaissance" is a name for an In "le nu klama", the "le" means important historical period, and that we are talking about the x1 "The Battle of Bunker Hill" is just defined, just as "le" means the name of an event. for simple sumti. The other By equating simple sumti and sumti may or may not be abstract sumti grammatically, we explicitly expressed, but the achieve some of the power of Loj- grammar is that of a full bridi ban's grammar. Lojban allows the terminated by the elidable manipulation of both types of terminator "kei": arguments using its grammar as predicate logic does - you ignore le nu mi klama le zarci kei ku the representation when [le nu <mi klama le zarci kei> manipulating the symbols. ku] The risk for human speakers is The event of my going to the the same as the advantage: you market ... may ignore the representation (As a lujvo, "nunklama", the 6 when manipulating the symbols. places would be renumbered x1 If you forget that you are through x6, hiding the two levelsworking with abstractions, you of grammatical structure.) can end up mixing levels of The parallel effect of "le" abstraction. The result is allows us to grammatically treat nonsense. In natural language, these two kinds of sumti alike inwhen we speak nonsense, the 55 listener tries to make sense of that would be sumti in Lojban. it, and intuitively ignores The relations that would be the errors of abstraction level, selbri in Lojban are giving understanding that may traditionally represented by a ignore logical errors. We want single word root ("gismu") in to avoid this in Lojban. Lojban; respectively these are Some examples. Here are some "djuno" ("know"), "mulno" relations expressed as English ("complete"), and "galfi" sentences: ("modify"). In each pair of sentences, one (1) relates a concept using an It is good. (It representing abstract sumti, and the other a "the cat") concept using a simple sumti. It is good. (It representing But notice: it is the "actor" of "the long romanticthe event in the abstraction sen- walk to the park")tence that serves as the simple sumti in the other sentence. In (4) you may need to look at the (2) parenthesized versions to see Mary considered it. (It this. representing "the In English, we typically cat") interpret both sentences as Mary considered it. (it meaning the same thing. But how representing "the can this be - is an abstraction long romantic walkreally the same as the actor of to the park") that abstraction? Is it "I" that turns the water into steam, or is (1) serves to remind that it "my boiling the water" that abstract sumti and simple sumti turns it into steam? It cannot are equivalent in Lojban bridi. be both using a single definition You need to be able to manipulatefor "turns it into steam". them using their symbols, without And indeed, the result is that worrying about what the symbols the meaning of "turns water into represent, or whether you end up steam", "is done", and "knows with nonsense, as in (2). At about" in English have at least some point, however, you want to two meanings, and we figure out interpret "it", and if "it" which one applies based on represents something illogical incontext. the context, you want to Linguists say that in such recognize that you have nonsense.cases, we have in effect 'raised' the simple sumti out of the ab- I know about John. straction and are using it to (3) represent the abstraction. This I know about John sleeping with feature is called 'subject-rais- Susan. ing' or 'object-raising' when used to describe English and The cooking is done. other natural languages. We call (My cooking something has it sumti-raising when talking completed.) (4) about Lojban, which does not I'm done cooking. distinguish between subjects and (I have completed the cook- objects. ing.) Notice that Lojban can make it clear that there are really two I turn the water into steam by distinct place structures boiling it. (5) involved when you have a sumti- My boiling it turns the water raising. For the examples, we into steam. have: (3) through (5) are pairs of sentences with two 'arguments' 56 x1 knows about x2 (an actor) resulting in apparent non-se- being the actor in doing x3 (anquitors: activity abstract like 'sleeping with')] I know about John that the dog is x1 knows about x2 (an abstract sleeping with Susan. event or fact) I am done with you doing the cooking. x1 (an event) is done/complete. I turn the water into steam by x1 (an actor) is done being the John boiling Susan. actor in event x2 These appear to be nonsense, x1 (an actor) modifies x2 into x3but the human mind attempts to by being the actor in make sense of them anyway, pos- event/process x4 sibly concluding that John is x1 (an event/process) modifies x2literally or figuratively a dog, into x3 that "my being done with you cooking" means that I will not The problem is explicit becausetolerate it any more and will eat so much of Lojban semantics is out instead, with "done" being embedded in the place structures.interpreted figuratively. For a variety of reasons - Another example out of recent logical integrity, ease of events that shows the logical learning, etc., we want to have errors that can result from this only a single place structure for(courtesy Art Protin): each Lojban word, and we want to know what goes into each place. Saddam Hussein modified the We have given a label to bridi borders of Iraq to include Kuwait place structures where one of theby Iraqi soldiers invading sumti places is defined to be an Kuwait. actor (or some other place) in an abstraction sumti found elsewhere Here we have an abstract cleft- in the same bridi. We call thesestructured sentence (it uses the 'cleft place structures'. same structure as "I turn the Even if there were no other water ..."), where the actor, reason, we dislike cleft place Saddam, does not appear in the structures because they are abstraction. To interpret this, repetitive and redundant. This we can jump to all manner of becomes evident in completely conclusions that are in some way expressed Lojban sentences, for logically faulty. We relying on which I will give English hidden assumptions to pull equivalents: meaning out of the statement, as we try to decide whether Saddam I know about John that John is or his soldiers were the sleeping with Susan. aggressors against Kuwait. I am done with my doing the For example, we may rely on the cooking. main predicate as pre-eminent, I turn the water into steam by myinterpreting the statement as if boiling the water. the Iraqi soldiers were Saddam Hussein, or else his direct Note that the last example has agents, puppets, or tools and not two redundant sumti, "I", and thinking and feeling human beings "the water", thus showing that capable of independent choice: sumti-raising is not limited to 'actor' places. The Iraqi soldiers are not Now, if you look at the Lojban responsible for attacking for these, you realize that it is because they had no choice. perfectly acceptable to put a different value in one of the two Alternatively, we think of supposedly equivalent places, "invade" as the active verb making the soldiers the actual 57 'actors', while Saddam remains a completed it? Is "le galfi" a nebulous motivational force (who modifier, or the modification actually 'did' nothing): process? You clearly want to be able to somehow access the actor, The Iraqi soldiers are since he/she/it is likely to be responsible, because Saddam used in a sumti. merely gave orders and they In older versions of Loglan, were obligated to disobey an there were many problem words of immoral or illegal order (the this sort. Jim Brown basically NЃrenburg judgement). argued that place structures should be what is 'natural' for The converse of the first speakers, including all version (seen from Saddam's pointinformation that is needed to of view perhaps) sees Saddam as determine the truth conditions of actor, and the soldiers as the relation. Both of these impersonal tools that failed in place structures include the their function: information, so he typically chose the more English-like Saddam is not responsible for version of the place structure. Iraq's losing the war because This led to all manner of subtle his soldiers failed him. difficulties. Since the actor is specified in one place, then also We thus end up depersonalizing in the event sumti, you typically either the soldiers or Saddam; will elliptically omit the actor, they cease to be thought of as as well as other places. real people because our instinctive language use wants to?mi mulno recognize only one active agent le nu [mi] jukpa [le in an abstract statement. cidja] (6a) Carrying such statements to their I complete illogical conclusion can the event-of [me] cooking [the depersonalize any aspect of the food]. war: I finish cooking. The allied coalition forces ?le nu mi jukpa [le should/should-not punish the cidja] soldiers (or Saddam, or the cu mulno people of Iraq: take your (6b) choice) because they were/were- The event-of me cooking the food not responsible. is-complete. (I deliberately chose a current The second sentence is often and controversial topic because 'shortened' in a couple of other opinion molders, whether ways in colloquial English: "I'm government or media, 'honest' done cooking." and "The food is writers or propagandists, use done cooking". (6b) reveals that just such illogical arguments andin English we are merely con- hidden assumptions to convince densing the abstract event in a readers of their point of view, different way, by ellipsizing a often with deadly consequences. different sumti of the event I intend none of the above bridi "my cooking the food". The expressions to be taken as being result was haphazard, mine or la lojbangirz.'s opinionsinconsistent place structures. on the matter.) It is important to realize the Another problem occurs when youhistorical roots of this problem, turn one of these words with because they constrain the possibly cleft structures into a solutions. The choice of gismu, simple description sumti. Is "leand indeed the grammar of Lojban mulno" an action that is itself, evolved from an earlier complete, or the actor that version of Loglan. That version 58 did not recognize sumti-raising a space as a pause (there is no as a feature of the language, andsymbolic representation in tended to obscure abstractions Institute Loglan that a pause is much the way we do in English, required in "le po blanu". based on Brown's concept of Finally, Brown introduced a 'natural' place structures. "poge" construction to make a In older versions of Loglan, 'long-scope' abstraction for use most words had an actor in the x1with trailing arguments and place. When trying to express logical connectives: "mi viska one of these bridi using the le poge ta blanu" is a possible given place structures, one construction, though one never naturally ellipsized the first used because it is identical to sumti of the abstract event, "mi viska lepo ta blanu". The which was just a repetition of web of spaces and "ge"s made a the actor, just as in (6a) above.mess of the grammar description, However, JCB apparently did not especially since both are used in recognize that the result was other ways in the grammar as logically identical to one with well. the abstract actor filled in, and When we started Lojban, we instead built the Loglan grammar rebuilt the grammar on our own. considering an abstract with el- At first, we merely copied the lipsized x1 actor as a totally existing Loglan structures. But separate grammatical construct. in 1989, we started teaching the This construct has no basis in language. In what is now Lesson logic and caused all manner of 3 of the draft textbook lessons, ambiguities in Loglan, we attempted to explain Loglan ambiguities that were solved by abstraction. Lojbanists from cheating in the Loglan machine before March 1989 may remember grammar. examples from that time using Institute Loglan STILL has this"*le nuke", which exactly matched problem, which I'll describe for "le poge"; we also had "nu" and those comparing the two versions "lenu" as distinct constructs. (otherwise skip this and the nextThe widely distributed 'February two paragraphs). That version 1988' machine grammar contains uses the word "po" where Lojban these fossils. uses "nu". In Jim Brown's While trying to explain versions of Loglan, "po" ("nu") abstractions, we demonstrated does NOT change the nature of a that there was only one real bridi, as I discussed above. "leconstruct involving "nu" and that po blanu" was a simple sumti: was a bridi turned into a selbri. "le (po blanu)", where "(po John Parks-Clifford (pc), noted blanu)" is a description for of athat he and others had unsuc- selbri. cessfully argued for this in the To get an abstract sumti, you 1970's with Jim Brown. pc also write "lepo" as a single word, had discussed cleft place which the computer parser would structures with Brown, but with then treat as a totally differentno resulting change. selma'o (grammatical category) In 1989, both the abstraction than "le", turning a whole bridi grammar and cleft place predication into a sumti: "lepo structures issues came up (ta blanu)". But a human being separately. The abstraction can't tell "lepo" from "le po" inproblem was resolved as described normal speech, so Jim Brown in- above, and pc's reasoning on the troduced an arbitrary rule that cleft place structures was to separate the two words, you convincing; we changed most place had to pause between them - a structures where x1 was the actor "lexemic" pause. and x2 was an event to a single Computer languages often use place. tanru (metaphors) and spaces to avoid ambiguities, and lujvo (complexes) were used to Jim Brown was in effect treating access the actor. "mulgau" 59 (mulno gasnu) is thus the actor raising' from subject-raising and form of "complete" in current object-raising. Lojban. Start with the English But the problem is not really sentence: resolved. We missed several cleft place structures, and have I try the door. discovered them intermittently (1) while doing the place structure reviews. "galfi" was a recent Without recognizing sumti- discovery, with the x1 place raising, we would translate this cleft from the x4 event. into Lojban as: Meanwhile, in teaching Lojban, we have found that when native mi troci le vorme English speakers trying to speak (1a) Lojban guess at place structures, they presume actor forms of the based on the place structure of words. Thus some people, "troci" (including those of us with more experience) use "mi mulno" for x1 tries to do/attain x2 by x3 "I'm done", usually with humorous(1b) results when called on it. (In Lojban, "you" are presumably not which expands to: "done" until the "event" repre- sented by the word "you" is com- x1 tries to bring about the plete; i.e. when you are dead, or event/state/ process/activity even later, in some religions.) x2 by method x3 (1c) Thus the problems: how hard do we try to eliminate cleft place (1c) clarifies that x2 is an structures and how do we solve abstract clause. I then view "le the natural language habit of vorme" is a sumti-raising from sumti-raising while preserving one of two possible x2 abstract Lojban's logical character? sentences: The Solution mi troci lenu mi karyri'a le vorme (2) The solution has evolved over I try the-event I open-cause the last year or so in several the door. stages. Only one grammar change is involved, and that expands mi troci lenu le vorme cu capabilities rather than changes kalri (3) any existing constructs in the I try the-event the door language. In developing a is-open. solution, we ended up running into multiple distracting side- (There is further possible issues, ranging from the place complication in (2) in that rinka structure of "djuno", to (cause), the basis of "karyri'a" 'indirect questions', the changeswould normally take an event that resulted will also be abstraction in its x1 place, thus listed. making the "mi" in that position a sumti-raising as well. (2) sumti-Raising thus can be further expanded to: In Lojban, there is no mi troci lenu difference between 'subject' and lenu mi lacpu/catke le vorme 'object', because free rearrange- cu rinka ment of arguments (sumti) using leka le vorme cu kalri conversion with selma'o SE can /lenu le vorme cu kalri lead to any sumti being in the first 'subject' position. The mi troci (lenu proposal thus generalizes 'sumti-I try the-event 60 <lenu mi lacpu/catke le abstracted bridi which is vorme> ellipsized, much as we leave out the event I pull /push the unimportant trailing places. We door have assigned the cmavo "co'e" to cu rinka represent such an unspecified, causes normally ellipsized, bridi. <leka le vorme Thus, (1a) becomes: cu kalri>) (4a) the-property-of the door mi troci tu'a le vorme open(-ness) the door's openness. which is equivalent to <lenu le vorme cu kalri>) (4b) mi troci the-event-of the door (5) is-open I attempt the door opening. lenu le vorme cu co'e the-event the door Clearly, much information is being/doing something. lost or hidden in sumti-raising - we don't know in (2) whether (To be formally correct, we pushing or pulling the door is should use "lesu'u" to get an necessary (or hitting the unspecified abstraction instead elevator door button, for that of "lenu") matter). Thus there clearly is a lot of semantics hidden in "le By looking back at (4a) and (4b), vorme" in original sentence (1a).we see that "co'e" in (5) is We want to mark this explicitly. actually the equivalent of the We want in Lojban to discourageEnglish: unnecessary sumti-raising because it is logically sloppy. However,"being opened by my sumti-raising allows brevity and pushing/pulling it". a 'natural' feel to the language. Clearly, (4a) and (4b) are too We will urge that when people much to ask of a speaker who is speak Lojban, that they try to be thinking (1) - that she/he merelyaware of the possibility that wants the door open, and it they may be sumti-raising, and doesn't matter how. mark it with "tu'a". We've thus accepted that sumti- Sloppy speakers, and new raising must be allowed in the Lojbanists, will sometimes fail - language. But it is most im- you have a lifetime of habit to portant that people recognize overcome. Thus a listener may when they are sumti-raising, and choose to assume that an unmarked mark it so that the listener can concrete sumti in a place that then allow for it, interpreting normally takes an abstraction 'what the speaker really meant' really is intended to be a sumti- as being something involving an raising - choosing to understand unspecified abstraction. (1) as meaning (5). If this We therefore will explicitly happens too extensively, however, mark sumti-raising using the the logical nature of Lojban is cmavo "tu'a", which is assigned compromised - thus we will not to selma'o LAhE (thus not teach unmarked sumti-raising as requiring a grammar change). valid, and will discourage it or LAhE is the category of 'indirectcorrect it when we notice it.) markers' that tell the listener sumti-raising solves the that the sumti as spoken is only problem of cleft place an indirect symbol for what is structures. It allows uncleft actually intended to fill the place structures to mimic cleft place. ones for user convenience. A Any time there is a sumti- sentence claim like: raising, there is an implied 61 lenu mi cinfai cu galfi inherently defined to be cleft, le bitmu with the actor/ agent extracted The event-of (I paint) from the action. There is no modifies the wall meaning to English "do" that avoids a cleft structure. corresponding to the place "zukte" also has a mandatory structure: (6) cleft structure since an action with goal requires an 'actor' to x1 (an event/action/state) adopt that goal. modifies x2 into x3 "lifri" is the corresponding (also cleft) word for a means the same as the cleft passive/patient/experiencer. sentence: "Actor/ agent", "goal", and "passive/patient/experiencer" are *mi galfi le bitmu fo lenu terms used in case theory mi cinfai semantics for the basic semantic I modify the wall by the roles in a sentence. It is event-of (I paint) likely that other places that correspond to such basic semantic based on place structure: roles may have remain cleft, if (6a) only to support continued efforts to regularize Lojban semantics. *x1 (an actor/agent) modifies x2 We may find that a couple more into x3 by doing/being x4 (an words must have cleft structures action/state) due to the inherent mental state of an actor that must be But if the act of painting is identified to evaluate the truth irrelevant or obvious, and all of the predication. you need to communicate was that "ckaji" and "klani" are cleft it was YOU who changed the wall, because they express the basic then "tu'a" makes the ellipsis semantic relation of a property possible for the uncleft abstract to the thing having the structure (6), and makes the property, and an amount abstract resulting sentence quite brief: to the thing being measured. Having mentioned "gasnu", it us tu'a mi galfi le bitmuworth noting that there is (7) another way to extract an actor/ Something I do modifies the wall.agent from an abstraction clause in an uncleft place structure. The consensus of Lojbanists is This other method is to use "gau" that uncleft place structures arefrom selma'o BAI, which is logically cleaner and are more derived from "gasnu" and is tied concise, hence the preferred way to that word's actor-extracting to go in Lojban. Thus, we are cleft place structure. trying to identify and eliminate Using the above example, we can as many cleft place structures asthus say: possible. We will not eliminate all of gau mi them. In some cases, the cleft (8) structure is inherent to the galfi le bitmu meaning of the concept. The mostwith-agent me (some-x1-event- noteworthy of these are "gasnu", unspecified) "zukte", "lifri", "ckaji", and modifies the wall "klani". One place structure change that This gives the same effect as has been formally adopted is the sumti-raising, but is more clear clarification that gasnu means as to the role of 'me' in the re- "x1 is the actor/agent in doing lationship. sumti-raising need event/process/activity x2". In not always involve raising an other words, "gasnu" is 'actor/agent'. Given that the 62 unspecified abstract selbri is The classic argument used by gun cinfai, we could easily say: control advocates, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people", tu'a lei blanu cinta relies on just such confusion of (9) abstraction levels. galfi le bitmu It is thus important to The blue paint understand that there is no doing/being something explicitly marked link between a (i.e. being spread) "gau"-added agentive place, and modifies the wall. the ellipsized x1 sumti. In causality statements like "Guns or even: don't kill people; people kill people", the claim about the tu'a le bitmu agent of a change may be indepen- (10) dent of the event that physically galfi le bitmu causes, motivates, justifies, or The wall doing/beinglogically entails the result. something "gau"-agents are thus logically (i.e. having paint inaccurate but semantically clear spread upon it) about the role of the marked modifies the wall. sumti. sumti-raising is more vague about the semantics of the "tu'a" is thus very vague and "tu'a"-marked sumti, but more relies on the speaker trusting precise logically. The only way that the listener will be able toto be precise in both aspects is determine from context what the to explicitly identify the hidden abstraction is and role subordinate abstracted bridi. the raised sumti plays (i.e. to Put still another way, BAI understand what the speaker meansclearly specifies the semantic without her/him being explicit). relation between the sumti and "gau mi" on the other hand says the rest of the bridi, while that I'm actually and actively labelled sumti-raising clearly doing something to bring about specifies that hidden ellipsis is the relationship, and we thus present. Both methods are a kind would be surprised by "gau lei of ellipsis, and both have a role blanu cinta" or "gau le bitmu". in the language. But let it be On the other hand, "gau" takes recognized that only explicit more thought than "tu'a". The elucidation of the hidden el- reason the speaker might use lipsis gives a complete "tu'a" sumti-raising is to save statement, just as explicit time and mental energy for elucidation of all places in a communicating the important bridi place structure makes a instead of the 'obvious'. bridi more complete. The "gau" form works differently from "tu'a", since it All sumti are created equal. is not actually sumti-raising. The x1 place of "galfi" remains Let us suppose that you want to unspecified. By avoiding that refer to the agent who modified difficult place in the place the wall in a sumti, rather than structure, it weakens that place in a full bridi. A mother says structure. More importantly, useto her child: "whoever modified of "gau" may indicate the this wall (by putting paint on speaker's failure to recognize it) will be punished". Until the hidden logical structure - this recent set of changes, there that I am agent in a subsidiary was no direct way to do this. event (the painting) rather than However, in the one grammar necessarily the agent in "galfi".change, introduced, we have added Ah, but aren't they the same selma'o JAI, which only has the thing? Probably yes, in this word "jai" in it. Following is case. But in others, not so. 63 the approved change and an abstraction sumti, one uses example. either explicit sumti-raising or implicit raising using a BAI PREVIOUS RULE: modal tag. JAI-based 'modal conversions' allow description Official doctrine states that thesumti access to modal tag sumti- sumtcita of a bridi constitute raising, as in: nonstandard places which are co- equal with the regular numbered le jai gau galfi be le places. However, there was no bitmu way to make these places the The actor-in modifying the subject of a description by wall. moving them into a numbered (specifically, the x1) place. djuno APPROVED CHANGE: The place structure of "djuno" Add JAI+sumtcita as another has been much-debated. The variety of SE conversion. (JAI problem is made more difficult is a new selma'o.) This is because English combines at least usable on selbri in descriptions four different concepts in "to or main selbri, not in the other know" which are often broken out places where SE is legal (logicalinto separate words in other connectives, modals, etc.). The languages. result is that the tcita sumti comes to occupy the x1 place, and the original x1 place is switched by the conversion to an un- numbered place which can be accessed with the cmavo "fai" (selma'o FA). All other places numbers remain unchanged as in SE conversions. To make room for this usage, the current "fai" and "fi'e" (selma'o GOhA) are changed respectively to "nei" and "no'a". (There is more explanation of these words below.) RATIONALE: It is currently messy to say "the time of my going to the store"; this looks like an abstraction, but does not match any existing abstractor. It can be handled quite neatly with: le jai ca klama be le zarci bei fai mi the (thing which is) simultaneous-with going to the store by me. In addition, when attempting to access a place (such as an agent) that is actually found within a 64 These are: they contain a 'question word' - "to understand something" and imply a question that was or ("jimpe") could be asked, but are not - "to be familiar with something"really questions. They often ("it is na'e cnino to me") involve knowledge, hence the - "to know in general about place structure of "djuno" fig- something" ("I know ured heavily in the discussion. arithmetic") An English example: "I know who - "to know a specific fact is went to the store." true" ("I know that '2+2=4'"). The term 'indirect question' is The latter two can be related actually somewhat of a misnomer; in a single gismu, and "djuno" all Indo-European languages represents those types of overlap use of relative pronouns knowledge. The new place with question words, and all use structure for "djuno" recognizes these 'wh- words' in 'indirect that the 'subject' of knowledge questions'. Grammarians could (x3) may or may not be at a also call them 'indirect broader level than the knowledge restrictive clauses', but this itself (x2), and that knowing a would never sell. fact (x2) entails knowing it in The problem in Lojban is that some larger context (x3), as wellwe cannot translate these using a as according to an epistemology question word, or there is an (a means of knowledge, e.g. ambiguity: deduction, observation, authority, etc. x4)). Thus the current place structure proposal for "djuno" is: x1 knows that abstract statement x2 (a 'truth') about subject x3 is true under epistemology x4 Examples: mi djuno zo'e lei cmaci I know some-fact(s) unspecified about math [by some epistemology]. mi djuno ledu'u li vo sumji li re li re I know the-assertion 4 sums 2 [and] 2 [about some subject by some epistemology] mi djuno fo le nu la .iuklid. lojycipra I know something about something by Euclid's logical-proof. Indirect Questions There are a variety of kinds of 'indirect questions', most often identifiable in English because 65 mi djuno le du'u ma implicit in the context, knows klama le zarci the correct value for that place: I know the statement (Who? going to the store) holds mi djuno le du'u la (1) djan. klama le I know the predication [John where "ma" is asking the listener goes to the to fill in the answer. This is zarci jikau le akin to the English - perhaps zdani said in surprise, with emphasis store (Connection-known) the as underlined: house] holds. I know who went to the store? I know whether John goes to the store or to the house. Loglan/Lojban must not use (4) emphasis to distinguish such usages. If the x1 place had been "la There are at least two ways of djan.", context would imply that expressing these now. When the it is John who knows the value, indirect question word is a form and not the speaker. of "ma" (who, what, when, where, You can match an English why, and how questions), just usetranslation better sometimes sumti-raising: using a different word in the selma'o. Using a non-question mi djuno tu'a word may imply additional le klama be le zarci information not expressible with I know [some statement about] a question. The initial "kau" the goer to the store, example captures the 'indirect [namely, identity] question' aspect of the English (2) "whether", but does not read very colloquially. You can insert a Note that the place structure hypothetical 'answer' where the for "djuno" allows us to avoid question word goes for a better- sumti-raising entirely using a reading English translation: 'cleft' x3 subject. mi djuno le du'u la mi djuno fi le djan. klama le klama be le zarci I know the predication [John I know (something) about the goes to the goer to the store zarci .akau [namely, identity]. le zdani (3) store or-(correct value known) the house] holds. This was one justification for the x3 place. I know whether John goes to the "djuno"'s place structure does store or to the house. not make up for the need for (5) "tu'a" sumti-raising with other brivla that have no 'subject' You might also choose to see place. 'indirect questions' as When the question word is not arestrictive relative clauses: sumti, use the new "kau" marker (memory hook: "pau"; "kau" mi djuno tu'a belongs to selma'o UI). "kau" zo'ekau marks the previous word as being (6) a placeholder that identifies the poi klama be le zarci selma'o of the correct value - itI know [something about] need not actually be that value. the something unspecified "kau" then indicates that the (correct value known) speaker, or some other person 66 that goes to the store, namely "kaunai", the negated form of identity. "kau", will need some semantic exploration. In the above or even more preferably as the sentence, I would interpret simpler abstract bridi: "jikaunai" to cause the meaning: mi djuno le du'u I know that John goes to the zo'ekau store or to the house, but not klama le zarci which. I know the statement the something unspecified However, "kaunai" is more (correct value known) useful in a sentence even more goes to the store. 'indirect': I know who went/is going to the la .alis djica lenu store. (7) Alice wants the-event that: You can also express 'knowing' mi djuno le du'u la more than one thing: djan. klama le I know the predication [John mi djuno le du'u goes to the zo'ekau zarci jikaunai le klama zo'ekau zdani I know the statement store (Connection-unknown) the the something unspecified house] holds. (correct value known) goes to the store. Alice wants me to know whether John goes to the store or to the I know who went/is going where. house (I don't). (10) (8) If "kau" had been used, the Another case of indirect statement would imply that I do question is the other know. Finally, by using the interpretation of the English discursive operator "se'inai" (4). This variety is more easily("other-centered") we could twist handled: the meaning to imply whether Alice knows. mi djuno tu'a le jei I know [something about] the The role of BAI truth-value of la djan. klama le zarci ja Many of these changes are tied le zdani to the use of selma'o BAI, and we John goes to the store orwere forced to re-examine what the house, [namely the these are. Although it was not value]. the original intent, BAI has I know whether John goes to the evolved towards being an exact store or to the house. equivalent of the gismu which we (9) selected as a memory hook, or as an abbreviation for a specific FIhO construct. The original intent in creating BAI was to decide on certain useful or needed roles that could or should be useful in expanding bridi, and then to pick words for them. As a basis for this we used Jim Brown's earlier work for Loglan, coupled with some research into case theory, and the everyday, if malglico 67 ("English-biased"), analysis of mi nelci la .apasionatas. pe English prepositional and cu'u la subordinate phrases. artr. rubenstain. Institute Loglan has TWO sets I love the Appassionata of these - case tags that are performed (expressed) by usable only to label place struc- Artur Rubenstein. ture places, and 'modal relative phrases' which are used to attach Note the "ne" vs. "pe" non-place structure terms. Therecontrast, reflected in the is some overlap and some English only in whether a comma commonalty between these. The appears after "Appassionata"; two are not interchangeable - thethere is only one Appassionata as case tags are more like our FA composed, but there are many tags. We wanted to have the performances of which I am capability that Jim Brown in- specifying Rubenstein's. tended for 'case tags' without the restrictions and duality. Loose Ends BAI was formed with the intention that every place structure place A couple of loose ends fell out could be labelled more or less along with the above changes. accurately with one of these. In addition to "co'e", we added We've since decided that there the corresponding unspecified can be no all-inclusive set of relation tag in selma'o BAI, 'case tags' for Loglan/Lojban "do'e". As with "co'e", a memory since there is no theoretical hook is "zo'e", the elliptically limit to the number of places in unspecified sumti. a bridi, and each place must have a different tag. "co'e" can be used as its own As a result of this evolution, rafsi in compounds. Examples: some members of selma'o BAI have been dropped, and one fairly co'epre = "unspecified type useful one has been changed to of person". clarify its meaning and to make it still more useful. The old This could be used in parallel "ci'a" was eliminated, and "fi'e"and contrasting structures in was assigned (the old "fi'e" was lujvo, such as: moved elsewhere, as mentioned above), tying the word to "finti" ti xaupre ("create/invent") instead of the This is-a-good-person. malglico reference in the old word to "ciska", whose keyword is ti xlapre "write", but refers to the This is-a-bad-person. "inscribe" sense of that word. Some uses of old "ci'a" are ti co'epre better expressed with "cu'u", This is-an-unspecified- also in BAI and based on "cusku":person. "cu'u" refers to the "expresser", "fi'e" to the "creator". Thus (example from John Cowan, who proposed this change): mi nelci la .apasionatas. ne fi'e la betoven. I love the Appassionata, composed by Beethoven. 68 le lojbo se ciska (continued) jubme e lo loldi .ije mi viska Next, a story written by long- time Lojbanist Bob Chassell, with lo nu lo canko cu kalri a couple of corrections by John Cowan, and Bob and Nora .i mi catlu lo plita ke bartu LeChevalier. But the corrections were minor. The most significant drudi noi lo'e prenu cadzu change is the incorporation of the sumti-raising changes in one .i mi cusku fi la tam. noi pulji sentence, which was a superb example of where such sumti- ku'o fe <<lu pe'i le zekri raising is needed to preserve the logical character of the prenu pu cpare le plita ke language. The translation section later in this issue gives bartu drudi le canko pe le some stylistic comments that would make things clearer or kumfa li'u>> perhaps more standard, but we know the language is getting .i la tam. cusku <<lu ia. ie. .i somewhere when comments are on stylistics rather than communi- ko catlu le kevna be le bitmu cating basic ideas. I'm reasonably sure that most anyone be'o poi ke'a trixe le pixra can understand this story with word list and only a most basic .i le kevna cu vasru lo tanxe understanding of the grammar. It is thus printed double-spaced for .ije ri kunti zo'e li'u>> those who wish to write translation notes as they read. .i la tam. cusku <<lu ju'e le (Note that "tu'a" is defined in the preceding article.) tanxe pu vasru loi rupnu li'u>> lo zekri .i mi catlu le vorme pe le tanxe fi'e la bab. tcySEL. pe le bitmu .i mi cusku <<lu ba'a le stela cu .i mi cadzu pagre le vorme le porpi .i .ua .ue mi facki lo kumfa .i lo xadni pe le nanmu za'i ge lo vorme gi lo stela na cu vreta lo loldi porpi li'u>> .i mi viska le flecu be loi ciblu .i mi cusku fi la tam. fe <<lu le bei fo le xadni .i mi sisku minra pu farlu lo bitmu lo loi sinxa be le zekri loldi gi'e pu porpi li'u>> .i mi viska loi kevna pe loi .i la tam. cusku <<lu pe'i le danti ge'u be lo sefta be lo morsi nanmu pu lacpu le minra jubme .ije mi viska lo nu loi lo loldi lo bitmu .i se'o mi'o cukta pu farlu lo kajna lo catlu lo sinxa da poi ke'a vajni lo nu sisku li'u>> 69 of European civilization over the .i la tam. cusku <<lu ra'u ju'e past couple of centuries to take other cultures and their "world- lo prenu poi ke'a pu sazri le views" seriously, not only as curiosities of interest to stela lo za'i kalri ku'o djuno scholars (especially anthropologists), but as evidence fi lo tadji be lo pu'u kalri of the range of possible human experience. The formulation of sazri le tanxe vorme li'u>> the hypothesis, associated with the names of Edward Sapir and .i mi cusku <<lu ganai tu'a le Benjamin Lee Whorf, had to await what Noam Chomsky has called the zekri prenu goi ko'a ge kalri "Boas tradition" of anthropological linguists, early- rinka le stela tanxe ginai twentieth century scholars engaged in empirical studies of spofu rinka tu'a ri gi ko'a cu American Indian languages. [See Chomsky, "Linguistic djuno fi lo pu'u kalri sazri leContributions to the Study of Mind: Future," rpt. in Language tanxe vorme .i .ua ru'a ko'a in Thinking: Selected Readings, ed. Parveen Adams (Harmondsworth: catlu le se minra be le nu Penguin, 1973), pp. 336ff.] The hypothesis is emphatically not kalri sazri le stela tanxe the a priori doctrine of linguists seduced by a vorme sepi'o lo darno ke catlu philosophical tradition, but a proposal advanced by investiga- cabra li'u>> tors who actually took the trouble to confront "alien" languages and cultures. _________________________________ What does the Sapir-Whorf ______________ Hypothesis claim? If it were true, what phenomena would we en- Versions of the Theory of counter and be equipped to Linguistic Relativity explain? In a fairly recent by Robert Gorsch article in the American Anthropologist (1984), Paul Kay INTRODUCTION and Willett Kempton reduce the Hypothesis to three propositions: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis The "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis," I. Structural differences which asserts that one's native between language systems will, in language determines in some general, be paralleled by non- fashion the nature of one's linguistic cognitive differences, experience and that members of of an unspecified sort, in the different linguistic communities native speakers of the two lan- will necessarily inhabit guages. different experiential worlds, II. The structure of anyone's has its roots in the ideas of native language strongly eighteenth- and nineteenth- influences or fully determines century thinkers like the world-view he will acquire as Giambattista Vico and Wilhelm vonhe learns the language. Humboldt. [See George Steiner, III. The semantic systems of After Babel: Aspects of Language different languages vary without and Translation (London: Oxford constraint. Univ. Press, c. 1975), pp. 73ff.] The emergence of this hypothesis ["What is the Sapir-Whorf reflects the growing willingness Hypothesis?" American 70 Anthropologist 1984 (86), 66. omissions, discourages other, Kay and Kempton's formulation is logically possible distinctions. based upon the thinking of Roger In short, according to the Brown and, through him, Eric Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, one will Lenneberg.] "see" what the structure of one's As this series of propositions language asks one to see and one suggests, one can distinguish twowill "see" -- as separate things possible sources of "Whorfian -- what the semantic system of effects": (1) differences in one's language defines as "linguistic structure" and (2) discrete semantic units. differences in "semantics." (Strictly speaking, of course, Saussurean Sign-Theory the "semantic system" of a It is sometimes thought that language, the division of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis has experience embodied in its been discredited and relegated to lexicon, is a part of its "struc-the trash-heap of intellectual ture." For, in linguistics, history. Certainly, it is true "structure" is really a synonym that mainstream linguists, influ- for "system.") Whorfians typi- enced by Noam Chomsky, tend to cally emphasize linguistic dismiss the Sapir-Whorf "structure" in a fairly limited Hypothesis no matter how sense. Thus, they tend to argue judiciously it is reformulated. that the structure of one's One could hardly expect any other native language will, by response, since Chomskian encouraging a particular manner linguists are committed almost as of structuring one's report of a matter of faith to the notion experience, have the effect of that the differences between shaping one's perception of the human languages must be world. One will tend to note in superficial and even trivial. If perception, that which one's one accepts the Chomskian theory grammar asks one to report in of a "universal grammar," one utterance. "Structure" embodies,will be compelled to dismiss any and imposes upon the speaker, a attempt, no matter how empirical metaphysics. its grounds, to justify the The semantic organization of Whorfian argument that "grammars" one's language will similarly vary enough to affect the shape one's experience of the structure of human experience. world. This is the implication Whatever mainstream linguists of Whorfian arguments that make say, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis appeal to such facts as the num- is alive and well in the popular ber of words that the Eskimos mind and in the academic mind -- have for the English concept at least outside of the "snow." If one approaches the discipline of linguistics. Many semantic system of language in a feminists, for example, believe Whorfian spirit, this system willthat the structure of English be viewed as an arbitrary seg- imposes upon its speakers a mentation of the experienced patriarchal metaphysics. world. We divide up the (English customarily subsumes the continuum of experience in feminine under the masculine in "culturally pertinent" ways, to its pronoun system, as in use a phrase borrowed from the expressions like "To each his semiologist Umberto Eco, in own.") In the disciplines accordance with our needs as customarily termed the humani- members of cultural groups ties, particularly those that confronting particular physical investigate literature and and social environments. The culture, versions of the Sapir- lexicon of our language, by the Whorf Hypothesis are widely taken categories it defines, affords usfor granted; the Sapir-Whorf ways to make distinctions in the Hypothesis, in some version, is experienced world and, by its 71 the premise of many currently continuum of experience into dominant methodologies. units -- "things," "states," Take for instance modern "sign-"processes," and so forth -- and theory." Semiology or "sign- links these units, one to theory," popularized by struc- another, in a web of relations of turalism and post-structuralism, opposition and affinity. Green embraces an equivalent of the is, for instance, differentiated Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Some from yellow on the one hand and "sign-theorists" even look back blue on the other: green exists to Whorf as a precursor. Modern as a unit in opposition to "sign-theory," rooted in the workadjacent units in the same of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand semantic field. At the same De Saussure, posits an initial time, green is linked moment when the human subject metaphorically, in relations of enters "language" and at the sameaffinity, to units belonging to time a certain culture-bound different semantic fields, for experiential world. In first instance, such units as nature, language acquisition an arbitrarylife, youth, and jealousy. system for organizing raw In suggesting that "raw experience begins to be imposed experience" -- what Whorf calls upon the mind. Subjects learn "the kaleidoscopic flux of how to segment experience into impressions" -- is organized by the units specified by the the human mind after its embrace language they acquire as infants;of a particular sign-system, they divide the continuum of Saussurean sign-theory simply experience into the "semantic reformulates the Whorfian units" that semiologists call Hypothesis. According to this "signifieds" -- i.e., the con- reformulation, the lexicon of ceptual elements of "signs." one's native language imposes a [According to semiological system of categories on one's theory, every "sign" consists of experience; the lexicon imposes a "signifier" or "expression" andon the speaker an arbitrary a "signified" or "content": differentiation of the continuum every linguistic sign, for of experience into semantic units instance, unites a combination of-- or, in the terminology of sounds or a series of written semiology, "signifieds" or symbols (the signifier) with a "culturally pertinent units." At concept (the signified).] the same time each language Semiologists typically pay imposes on the speaker a network special attention to the array ofof relations of affinity between "signifieds" posited by a lin- these semantic units. This guistic community, i.e., the system of categories and the units into which the community accompanying network of asso- divides the continuum of the ciations constitute the "map" of experienced world, and to the experience offered by each network of relations by which language to its native speakers. these "signifieds" are interrelated, i.e., the system of A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY connotative links by which units belonging to different semantic Note on the bibliography: fields are linked with one In this bibliography I attempt another. to trace the development of the Thus, semiology takes for "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" from the granted one of the crucial early decades of the twentieth- corollaries of the Sapir-Whorf century to the present. The Hypothesis, namely, that in items included in the acquiring the semantic system of bibliography range in date from a language one embraces a 1911 to 1990. While the bib- particular "map" of experience. liography makes no claims to A semantic system divides the completeness, it does represent 72 an attempt (1) to clarify the 1a. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: role of earlier ethnologists, Formulation including Boas and Sapir, in the formulation of what is often Ben G. Blount, ed., Language, called simply "the Whorfian Culture, and Society: A Book of Hypothesis," (2) to chart the Readings (Cambridge, Mass.: career of the Hypothesis from the Winthrop, 1974). 1940's to the 1980's, and (3) to This sourcebook includes draw attention to the kindred important selections from Boas, thinking of semiologists working Sapir, Whorf, and Hoijer. in the tradition of Saussurean Franz Boas, "Theoretical linguistics. Importance of Linguistic The bibliography is not Studies," in "Introduction" to alphabetical; entries are the Handbook of American Indian arranged by category and date. Languages, F. Boas, ed., In compiling this working Bulletin 40, Part II, Bureau of bibliography I have cannibalized, American Ethnology (Washington, without shame, the following D. C.: Government Printing lists of references: Wallace L. Office, 1911). Reprinted in Anderson and Norman Stageberg, Blount, pp. 23-31. eds., Introductory Readings on Lucien Levy-Bruhl, How Natives Language (New York: Holt, Think (N.Y.: Knopf, 1925), pp. Rinehart, and Winston, 1975), pp. 139-180. 38ff.; Ben G. Blount, ed., Willis D. Wallis, An Introduction Language, Culture, and Society: A to Anthropology (N.Y.: Harper Book of Readings (Cambridge, and Row, 1926), pp. 416-431. Mass.: Winthrop, 1974); Ralph Edward Sapir, "The Unconscious Dumain, "Bibliography on Language Patterning of Behavior in and Thought," ju'i lobypli (The Society," in The Unconscious: A Logical Language Group), March, Symposium, ed. E. S. Drummer 1990, 36-38; John J. Gumperz, (New York: Knopf, 1927). "Reader" for "Interactional Reprinted in Blount, pp. 32-45. Sociolinguistics (Anthropology - - - - - - , "Conceptual 270B)," University of California, Categories in Primitive Berkeley, Fall, 1986; John Parks- Languages," Science 74 (1931). Clifford, [Note], ju'i lobypli - - - - - - , "Language," (The Logical Language Group), Encyclopedia of the Social Dec., 1989, p. 44; and Bob Sciences, ed. Seligman and LeChevalier [and Alan Munn], ju'i Johnson (New York: Macmillan, lobypli, March, 1991, pp. 57ff. 1933). Reprinted in Blount, I want to thank Bob LeChevalier pp. 46-66. and the Logical Language Group Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language, for arguing incessantly about the Thought, and Reality: Selected Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and my Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, colleague Barbara Grant for loan- ed. John B. Carroll (Cambridge, ing me a copy of Gumperz's Mass.: MIT Press, 1956). "Reader." The most revealing essays are, in my opinion, "Science and Linguistics" (1940) and "Languages and Logic" (1941). Another interesting essay, reprinted in Blount as well as in Carroll's selection, is "The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language" (1939). See also the essays "An American Indian Model of the Universe" (c. 1936), "A Linguistic Consideration of 73 Thinking in Primitive Com- Paul Hanle, Language, Thought, munities" (c. 1936), and Culture (Ann Arbor: Univ. "Linguistics as an Exact of Michigan Press, 1958). Science" (1940), and "Language, Summarizing the results of a Mind, and Reality" (1941). conference held at U. Mich. in 1951-2. 1b. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Roger Brown, Words and Things Career (N.Y.: Free Press, 1958), pp. 229-63. M. J. Herskovits, Man and His J. Fishman, "A Systematization of Works (N.Y.: Knopf, 1947), pp. the Whorfian Hypothesis," 440-457. Behavioral Science 5 (1960), Clyde Kluckhohn, "The Gift of 232-39. Tongues, in Mirror for Man: A James Cooke Brown, "Loglan," Survey of Human Behavior and Scientific American 202 (1960), Social Attitudes (New York: 53-63. McGraw-Hill, 1949), Chapter VI. Describes an effort in John B. Carroll, The Study of linguistic engineering designed Language (Cambridge, Mass., to create an artificial 1953), pp. 43-48. language that would permit the Harry Hoijer, "The Relation of Whorfian Hypothesis to be Language to Culture," in tested. Anthropology Today, ed. A. L. John B. Carroll, "Language and Kroeber (Chicago: Univ. of Cognition," in Language and Chicago Press, 1953), pp. 554- Thought (Englewood Cliffs, N. 573. J., 1964). Harry Hoijer, ed., Language in See especially 106-110 ("The Culture, Comparative Studies of linguistic-relativity thesis"), Cultures and Civilizations, No. which offers a critique of the 3; Memoirs of the American strong version of the Whorfian Anthropological Association, Hypothesis. No. 79 (Chicago: Univ. of James Cooke Brown, Loglan I Chicago Pr., 1954). (Gainesville, Fla.: The Loglan The proceedings of a 1953 Institute, 1966). conference on the Sapir-Whorf Brown's book was revised in Hypothesis. 1975 and 1989. Harry Hoijer, "The Sapir-Whorf Dell Hymes, "Two Types of Hypothesis" (1953), reprinted Linguistic Relativity," in in Hoijer (1954) and in Blount Sociolinguistics: Proceedings (1974). of the UCLA Sociolinguistics R. Brown, "Linguistic Determinism Conference (1964), ed. W. and Parts of Speech," Journal Bright, Janua Linguarum Series, of Abnormal Social Psychology 20 (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), 55 (1957), 1-5. 114-167. R. Brown and E. Lenneberg, Arnold M. Zwicky, Review of "Studies in Linguistic Brown's Loglan I, Language 45:2 Relativity," in E. Macroby, T. (1969), 444-457. See also John H. Newcomb, and E. L. Hartley, Cowan (1991), below. eds., Readings in Social Roger Brown, Psycholinguistics: Psychology, 3rd edition (New Selected Papers (N.Y.: Free York: Holt, Rinehart, and Press, 1970), pp. 235-256. Winston, 1958), 9-18. John B. Carroll and Joseph B. Casagrande, "The Function of Language Classification in Behavior," in Readings in Social Psychology (1958), 18- 31. 74 John MacNamara, "Bilingualism and selected and introduced by A. Thought," Georgetown University S. Dil (Stanford: Stanford Round Table on Languages and Univ. Press, 1979). Linguistics 1970: Bilingualism "Friedrich disagrees with and Language Contact, ed. by Whorf's views on language and James E. Alatis (Washington: metaphysics, but accepts the Georgetown University Press, strong thesis in the realm of 1970), pp. 25-45. poetic language and its Critical of the Whorfian relation to the imagination" Hypothesis. (R. Dumain). Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, IdeologiesPaul Kay and Willett Kempton, of Linguistic Relativity (The "What Is the Sapir-Whorf Hague: Mouton, 1973). Hypothesis?" American Includes consideration of the Anthropologist 86 (1984), 65- sociological roots of the 79. doctrine of linguistic relativ- Discusses the content of the ity, including white guilt over Hypothesis and reviews the extermination of the empirical research that Indians. attempts to test it; reports Noam Chomsky, Introduction to experimental confirmation of a Adam Schiff, Language and modified version of the Cognition (1964), tr. Olgierd Hypothesis in the area of color Wojtasiewicz and ed. Robert S. perception. Cohen (N. Y.: McGraw-Hill, Frederick J. Newmeyer, The 1973). Politics of Linguistics Critique of the Whorfian (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Hypothesis. Press, 1986). Adam Schiff, Language and A history of linguistic theory Cognition (1964), tr. Olgierd that attacks the Whorfian Wojtasiewicz and ed. Robert S. Hypothesis as racist. Cohen (N. Y.: McGraw-Hill, David McNeill, "Linguistic 1973). Determinism: The Whorfian Historical account of Hypothesis," in linguistic theory (from the Psycholinguistics: A New 18th century on): background to Approach (New York: Harper and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Row, 1987), Ch. 6, pp. 173-209. Ronald W. Langacker, "Semantic The Logical Language Group, ju'i Representations and the lobypli (1988-1991). Linguistic Relativity A variety of discussions of the Hypothesis," in Foundations of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis from the Language 14 (1976), 307-357. perspective of Lojbanists: see The author "tries to formulate Aug.-Sep., 1988; Dec., 1988; the hypothesis in a non-vacuous June-July, 1989; Nov.-Dec., manner, and ultimately rejects 1989; March, 1990; May, 1990; the strong version, basing August, 1990; and March, 1991. himself on a distinction John Cowan, "Loglan and Lojban: A between primary conceptual Linguist's Questions and an structures and the semantic Amateur's Answers," ju'i representations into which lobypli (March 1991), pp. 21ff. thought is coded" (R. Dumain). Responding to Zwicky's review Danny K. Alford, "The Demise of of Brown's Loglan I. the Whorf Hypothesis (A Major Revision in the History of Lin-2. Semiology and the Thesis of guistics)," Proceedings of the Linguistic Relativity. 4th Annual Meeting of the The following list by no means Berkeley Linguistic Society, 4 represents the field of (1978), 485-99. semiology as a whole; I have Paul Friedrich, Language, limited myself to a handful of Context, and the Imagination: texts that I have found useful Essays by Paul Friedrich, in the classroom. 75 3. Related Studies Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics (1915), tr.B. Comrie, ed., The World's Major Wade Baskin (New York: Languages. Philosophical Library, 1959), Descriptive text used in the pp. 7-17, 65-78, and 111-122. design of Lojban. Seminal sections from Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, Basic Saussure's lectures, laying the Color Terms (Berkeley: Univ. of foundations for modern sign- Calif. Press, 1968), esp. pp. theory (semiology or 1-14. semiotics). George Steiner, After Babel: Pierre Guiraud, Semiology (1975). Aspects of Language and A reasonably good primer, Translation London: Oxford introducing sign-theory and its Univ. Press, c. 1975), esp. pp. application to various areas of 73-109: Linguistic relativism human experience. (including Whorf) vs. Umberto Eco, "Social Life as a linguistic universalism Sign System," Structuralism: An (Chomsky). Introduction, ed. David Robey, Useful for its discussion of (1973), pp. 57-72. the philosophical tradition - - - - - , "How Culture that lies behind the Sapir- Conditions the Colours We See," Whorf Hypothesis. On Signs, ed. Marshall Blonsky Eleanor Rosch, "Classification of (1985), pp. 157-175. Real-World Objects: Origins and This essay and "Social Life as Representations in Cognition," a Sign System" provide a useful MS, University of California, introduction to the semio- Berkeley, c. 1975. logical equivalent of the Criticizes, on empirical Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. grounds, the idea that Takao Suzuki, Words in Context: A experience is a continuum Japanese Perspective on arbitrarily segmented by the Language and Culture (1973), mind. Available from E. Rosch, tr. Akira Miura (Tokyo: c/o Dept. of Psychology, Univ. Kodansha International, 1978; of Calif., Berkeley, Berkeley, rev., 1984). CA 94720. A richly suggestive comparison George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, of the languages and cultures Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: of Japanese speakers and Univ. of Chicago Press, 1980). English speakers. The book "The authors make an important presents, and offers empirical study of the metaphorical basis evidence for, a theory of lin- of language. In the final guistic relativity similar in chapters they argue for an spirit to those of Whorfians extreme relativism" (R. and Saussurean semiologists. Dumain). John Lucy, "Whorf's View of the Alfred H. Bloom, The Linguistic Linguistic Mediation of Shaping of Thought: A Study in Thought," in Semiotic the Impact of Language on Mediation: Sociocultural and Thinking in China and the West Psychosocial Perspectives, ed. (Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum, E. Mertz and R. J. Parmentier 1981), pp. 13-36. (Orlando: Academic Press, "The Distinctive Cognitive 1985). Legacies of English and Chinese," especially the sections "Counterfactuals in English and Chinese" and "Theoretical Extensions." George Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the 76 Mind (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago le lojbo se ciska (continued) Press, c. 1987). How human beings segment and Now for a lighter piece of order their experience. Lojban text. The following bit is from John Cowan, and he uses CONCLUDING NOTE: This is only a "rinka" in the intended uncleft working bibliography; I welcome place structures manner. He the assistance of other inter- noted in submitting it that he ested scholars. Please send made no grammatical errors - the comments, criticisms, parser accepted it the first corrections, and suggested time. For those trying to read additions and deletions, to the it, "clupe'as. xarengus." is a following address: Lojbanization of the Linnean bi- nomial for "herring". A Robert Gorsch translation will be found later Department of English in this issue. St. Mary's College Moraga, Calif. 94575 pamoi xamrei ra'a lo verba _________________________________ ________________ ni'o la paf. cusku lu pau mazo'o crino gi'e dandu le bitmu gi'e siclu li'u .i la ver. cusku lu .uanai mi na djuno li'u .i la paf. cusku lu .ui lo me la clupe'as. xarengus. finpe li'u .i la ver. cusku lu ia ri goi ko'a na crino li'u .i la paf. cusku lu fu'i le nu ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba crino li'u .i la ver. cusku lu .iasai ko'a ba'e na dandu le bitmu li'u .i la paf. cusku lu fu'isai le nu ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba dandu li'u .i la ver. cusku lu iacai ko'a ba'e ba'e na siclu li'u .i la paf. cusku lu fu'icai mi pu cusku lo jitfa li'u 77 _________________________________ Each grammatical construct ________________ consists of a leading LeftBracket token, a On Loglan and Lojban Elidables trailing RightBracket token, and some number of sub- The following paper was written structures trapped between by Jeff Prothero as an answer to these two tokens. criticism of the use of elidable Every token is either a tokens in Loglan formal grammars. LeftBracket or a The argument applies to Lojban as RightBracket. well as to any other version of No token is both a LeftBracket Loglan grammar, provided that the and a RightBracket. grammar abides by the defining Every LeftBracket has a unique rules of Bracket Languages (I am matching RightBracket. not sure that current Institute Loglan still abides by these Note that we do not require that defining rules - comment is each RightBracket have a unique sought from anyone who has such matching LeftBracket. knowledge.) The reference to GU in the title is to the older Sample Bracket Language: Loglan RightBracket selma'o that in Lojban was changed to KU. Thestart -> bracket | broket | title is thus a bit of a pun for mixed Lojbanists, since the 'GU' is gone from our selma'o list as bracket -> '[' ']' well. | '[' start ']' | '[' start start ']' The GU is Gone! Elidable Terminators in Logical broket -> '<' '>' Languages | '<' start '>' Copyright (c) 1989 Jeff Prothero | '<' start start '>' Reprinted with permission from the author. mixed -> '{' '>' | '{' start '>' The elision of trailing | '{' start start '>' terminators has been a prime problem for everyone seriously working to understand the Lo**an grammar. This paper is a first attempt to deal with this problem. The major questions to resolve: When can terminators be elided? When would such elision introduce ambiguity? How does one recover the full syntax of a sentence containing such elisions? The first step is to establish a simple analytical model, which exhibits the relevant problems without extraneous detail and complexity. We consider the Bracket Languages BL, defined by the following grammatical properties: 78 This grammar specifies the added to BL as a result of the infinite set of strings: Augmentation Rule. [] Question 1: Does the <> Augmentation Rule introduce {> ambiguities? [[]] [[][]] Let us make the question more [{><>] precise. Each e in E was derived . . . from some parent p in BL (not BL'!) by one or more applications For terseness, we would like toof the Augmentation Rule. We omit some of the trailing want to know if this derivation terminators "when no ambiguity was unique, or if some such e has would result". The problem is totwo possible parents in BL. formally specify the latter Formally: can there exist a pair constraint. <e,p>, e in E and p in BL with p From a mathematical-linguistic -> (via repeated Augmentation point of view, dropping some of Rule) e, such that r is in (BL- the trailing terminators corre- p)'? If so our Augmentation Rule sponds to adding various strings has introduced an ambiguity into to the above language, such as: the language by erasing an [ essential token, rather than { merely a redundant token. [[] [[][] Answer 1: No such ambiguity [{><> is introduced by the [{>< Augmentation Rule. [{><] . . . PROOF: Let us assume that such an ambiguity exists. Then either How do we specify the full set e, or some other string along the of strings to be added? Given path from p to e, has two such a string, how do we recover possible legitimate parents under the full syntax? the Augmentation Rule. Let us I propose the following call this child c, and the two Augmentation Rule for adding the possible parents p0 and p1. strings: Then we have: p0 == "a]Bc" for some a,],B,c IF "a]Bc" is in the language, p1 == "a>Bc" for some > != ], where: same a,B,c. "a" is any sequence of tokens Now > and ] both match the same "]" is any RightBracket LeftBracket in "a", since p0 and "B" is any token p1 are both strings from our "c" is any sequence of Bracket Language. But each tokens LeftBracket has a UNIQUE matching AND IF "aB" is not a prefix ofRightBracket, by our definition any string in the language, of Bracket Languages, hence we THEN we add "aBc" to the must have > == ], hence p0==p1, language. hence no such distinct parent- pair is possible. QED. Given a Bracket Language BL, application of the Augmentation Question 2: Is a LALR(1) Rule until closure is achieved parser capable of detecting results in a new language BL' such elided tokens? which contains BL as a subset. Let us call BL'-BL "E" (for "Eli- Answer 2: Yes. sions"). These are the strings 79 If "a]Bc" has been reduced to "aBc", then we must have the *le nanmu joi le ninmu condition that "aB" is not a legal prefix of any string in BL.is ungrammatical (though But an LALR(1) parser has a tableperfectly understandable to which tells it, at any given in- humans) because of the '1' in stant, the legal set of lookaheadLALR(1). tokens. If the current lookahead After "nanmu", "joi" is legal token is not in that set, there and moves the grammar to a state will be at most one RightBracket (using the formal grammar rule in the lookahead set, by a simplefor "joikjeks") where it expects variant of the above argument. a token valid in a selbri (i.e.; The parser can then insert that it expects something like the unique RightBracket in its input valid: stream and continue. le nanmu joi ninmu _________________________________ = the hermaphrodite). ________________ Not finding a selbri word (of How Elidables Work in which some 20 or 30 selma'o are Loglan/Lojban legal in the first position by by Bob LeChevalier SOME rule or another), it then tries to stick in the elidables I would love it if someone from shortest scope termination could solve the problem of to longest. But none of these specifying elidability rules, butare legal in the position AFTER I can only do so in generalities joi where we are looking: without making specific reference to YACC's LALR(1) algorithm. *le nanmu joi ku/cu/vau/... Specifically, the elidables are optional if, using the YACC so the parser rejects the phrase. algorithm, a parser looking at To non-logically join two sumti the next token after an omitted with joi under the formal grammar elidable, does not find it valid.rule for "joikek", the "ku" Instead it performs error pro- cannot be elided before the "joi" cessing which sticks in the and the following is grammatical: elidable and this in turn moves it to a new state. le nanmu ku joi le ninmu Thus in "le nanmu klama le The team of the man/men joined zarci", after "nanmu" a parser with the woman/women will read "klama" and determine that a tanru is continuing. It Presumably a LALR(2) (looking reads "le", which is not legal ahead 2 tokens) parser would be after "klama" by any rule, and able to handle this particular inserts "ku". It inserts "ku" elision, but Lojban is defined so and other elidable terminators as to satisfy LALR(1). There are based on the order of constructs;other places that even 2 is not it sticks in the 'tightest bound'sufficient, but they less often elidable - in this case the involve elidables. Far more terminator for the first "le" often, if you omit an elidable construct. The result is a incorrectly, you will end up with grammatical parse - as two sumti another sentence/fragment that is without a selbri. valid but grammatically Probably the speaker intended different. We thus recommend "le nanmu cu klama le zarci", butthat where in doubt, or in noisy the parser cannot determine this,environments, use the added because YACC will not stick in anredundancy of including the elidable unless it finds an elidable. We thus WANT the invalid token. language to be defined so that For another example: 80 elision is not mandatory if it isdo fine. There is no stigma possible. against including in an elidable Thus, the question: "Is there terminator unnecessarily. always enough information for Because of this, you do not need someone to decide exactly when a to know 'the whole grammar' to "cu" or some other elidable is orspeak Lojban. Only in complex is not required?" can be nested constructs which you answered: yes, it is always pos-shouldn't be using if you don't sible. But you must know the know most of the grammar, are you entire grammar to always be able likely to find situations where to decide. With an incomplete you might erroneously elide a knowledge of the grammar, you mayterminator. Even there, by end up incorrectly eliding, and concentrating on just a few should err when uncertain on the 'most-frequent errors', you will side of not eliding. seldom make an error. This is not as bad as it seems, because most problems that might _________________________________ arise (the "joi" problem is un- ________________ usual in this regard) occur because of multiple elision. A History and Description of Thus in: le'avla in Loglan and Lojban by Bob LeChevalier le nu mi klama le zarci cu xamgu Those with 1975 dictionaries the complete specification with will find every chemical element all elidables added is: was included twice, as a name, and as an 'S-prim' ("le'avla that lenu mi klama le zarci ku vau keilooks like a gismu" if you are ku cu xamgu new to the project). Though JCB disagrees, I and the "cu" separator, acting asbelieve it was a conversation the longest scope elidable, makesbetween him and me in 1980 that a wall that forces a parser to led to the "3rd lineage" of keep sticking in all the borrowings (translation - the optionals until there are none creation of a third form of left. brivla besides gismu and lujvo - If we had omitted the "cu", thethe le'avla). parser would add in elidables His response proposal - the only at end of text giving the birth of le'avla, was reported a non-elided equivalent: month or so later in TL3/4. At the time of GMR, JCB moved le nu mi klama le zarci xamgu ku MOST of the 'S-prims' into vau kei ku vau borrowing space. The 'algorithm' for le'avla was discussed in It turns out that there is a TL6/1 (1983). JCB then launched valid Lojban interpretation that what he called the "Sciwords" is not the one intended if you project, to massively borrow use any single one of those words from many fields into the terminators besides "cu" in the language. If there were any place where the "cu" would go. volunteers at the time, their With no "cu" and two elidables, work was never reported because you can get the correct TL folded followed by Lognet a interpretation with "ku ku", "vauyear later after the 1983-4 ku", or "kei ku", but not with political squabbles. "ku vau", "ku kei", or "vau kei". JCB continued to work on the borrowings, and translated a few But the average Lojbanists needparagraphs of Scientific American not worry about these other forms(reprinted in 4th edition Loglan - just use the "cu" when in even 1) that were heavy in scientific the slightest doubt, and you'll jargon to be borrowed. He once 81 reported making borrowings for 50the elements to be borrowed from. kinds of cheese one night after I still subscribe to this idea, reading an article on the though John Cowan does not. Ger- subject. There have been some man has made non-international reports in recent Lognets that forms of some elements, and others have made some le'avla andChinese, with its word-forming that the Sciwords project finallyrestrictions, has non-in- accomplished something, but no ternational forms for all (but list has been published because they often try to make a word of the Institute's trade secret that suggests the chemical policy. symbol). The "Latinate forms" When Rebecca Bach and I visitedare really the English/ French JCB is May 86, we discussed forms, since those two languages borrowings, and specifically have dominated the scientific JCB's then current effort on publication field during the time remaking the element words into of internationalization of sci- le'avla as a test for his ence. We can't get around this attempts to devise "fast-tracks 'Latinate bias', but feel that if to borrowing" that would evade a truly international standard the mind-stretching "*slinku'i" exists, we should use it. test. They didn't. It turned After the 1986 visit to JCB, I out that we went through all of went home, and reworked the the elements and remade them, butelement words, which were left found that there were few simple hanging. The UL2 publication was guidelines. (We did notice that 4 months later. Other than a -CVCV word-endings frequently discussion in JCB's Notebook 3, give good le'avla, as well as and Loglan 1 4th edition, and that it is easier to avoid ensuing responses to my criticism "*slinku'i" problems by making of the latter, there has been the initial consonant cluster notminimal discussion of le'avla a permissible initial. Rebecca, until recently - although the a Loglan novice, proved better culture words have been than either JCB or me at questioned by many new Lojbanists detecting flaws in le'avla- (who have generally been making, but none of us were satisfied with my answers - really good at it.) again, until recently). JCB at this time made clear that a standard for scientific Four Flavors of le'avla le'avla making, unlike gismu, was visual recognition rather than Here was my 1979 argument and aural recognition, since proposal for 4 'flavors' of technical words are used in borrowing. In attempting to written language more than spokentranslate the song "Man of La language. JCB introduced Mancha", which as I've reported borrowing-and-name-only lerfu forwas my own first attempt to use "W", "Q", "X", and "Y" to make Loglan, there was no word for visually recognizable borrowings "trumpet", "gauntlet", etc. Even easier. (His version of the if there had been, in the context language uses "H" where we use of the song, these words convey "x".) JCB's published examples specific cultural values that are show the priority on visual not inherent to the musical recognition of borrowings rather instrument or the piece of than aural recognition, but some medieval armor. I tried to make rules seem to contradict this a lujvo for each, but we're obvi- trend. ously talking 6-7 terms - really JCB also felt that the ugly! beginning of the chemical element I had already noted that words should reflect the interna-many/most of the gismu proposals tional symbol - the closest thingbeing made were for plants/ani- to an international 'word' for mals, etc. The limits on this 82 set were effectively infinite, not conflict with another but gismu space wasn't. There 'official' meaning of the did not seem to be any way to wordform. This is also a determine which plants or animalssolution when you want to use an should get gismu. existing word but are afraid that I thus proposed to JCB a seriesyour place structure usage may be of 4 steps to borrowing words. Itotally unlike the dictionary still stand by these steps, definition. though even in Lojban we haven't Though not an approved gotten past the third for any practice, you could even make words yet, (and shouldn't). The le'avla in the form of gismu or element words and the culture lujvo if you mark them with words are the most likely "za'e". The permitted word-forms candidates to be the first for le'avla are defined primarily le'avla of the fourth step: by exclusion (it can't break down into two words, it can't be a 1. Most borrowings are little lujvo, or a gismu, it can't fail more than names, and indeed are something called the "*slinku'i" used as sumti. Thus to use a test), and coining nonce words is current example, la kromium. willdifficult, so this freedom is do for most instances of the worth something for spontaneity concept "Chromium". In a rare in the use of Lojban by non- instance where you need to use itfluent speakers. I do not recom- in a selbri, you have "me la mend intentionally invading lujvo kromium." space with le'avla because, even in a nonce lujvo, the listener 2. When a borrowing will be will presumably try to take the frequently used as a selbri, you word apart into component rafsi. want to coin a word, but don't But let's face it; the people want to go through the 6 (or 8 inmaking nonce le'avla will often old Loglan) languages research be less than expert, and "za'e" effort. So you just make up a allows a good bit of margin for nonce word, probably borrowing error. from your native language word It turns out that our design for the concept, and then OVERTLYmade "za'e"-form le'avla a bit mark it as a borrowing. The useless anyway. "za'e" will now marker was to be an unassigned be used more with lujvo than with cmavo, probably from the then borrowings because it turns out partially unused 'hV' set. that it is virtually as easy to This proposal survived into make step 3 le'avla as step 2 the initial Lojban design. A nonce forms as described next. cmavo "le'a" (no longer used for Because step 3 forms are limited this purpose) would mark the fol-to specific fields, and the lowing word as a nonce borrowing.method for making them is so This particular version lasted simple. it is not necessary to until a couple of months ago whenmark these with "za'e". (It is John Cowan proposed the general- of course permitted and may be ization to mark ANY nonce word recommended that you do so if you usage using (instead) "za'e", noware a using a word in a field in in selma'o BAhE. which you are non-expert. This This current design says that is like putting quote marks you coin a word, which must be a around the word to show that you legal brivla (a lujvo or le'avla,may be being non-standard in the though one could coin an technical terminology.) unofficial gismu as well, in theory) and not break down into 3. Most of the le'avla you see multiple words. Marking this nowadays are step 3 le'avla. word by preceding it with "za'e" These are names for concepts in means that you have just now specific semantic fields, coined the word, it may or may Lojbanized into brivla-form by a 83 most trivial process, and then sound stream is ambiguous and the marked with a classifier rafsi. listener hears "paslinku'i", a Originally I proposed that valid lujvo. Since le'avla are classifier rafsi go on the end, defined so as never to cause making things look like lujvo: conflict with gismu or lujvo, "kromium-xuki" (chromium- this form of le'avla is invalid. chemical). This is the proposal The virtue of step 3, then, is that was printed in UL2, the that almost anyone can make nonce early version of JL from before le'avla with minimal learning. the Institute/la lojbangirz. The resulting words are known not split. The reaction to UL2 was to fail the "*slinku'i" test, that people did not like the they are flagged so that a lis- ending rafsi partly because thesetener knows he/she is hearing a rafsi were CVCV form and were le'avla, that the word is some thus a second type of rafsi that kind of nonce word, and that it had to be memorized. I then cameis restricted to a specific up with the current design, whichjargon field which is identified. is described lightly in the This is often all that is needed Synopsis. John Cowan has - since someone familiar with the codified the current process for jargon field will recognize the step 3 le'avla, and proposed a borrowed portion, and someone who new list of chemical element doesn't can ask. le'avla that are presumably valid Step 3 and step 4 le'avla can by that process. (The list is be used in lujvo. However they too long to reprint here.) are always joined to adjacent Simply, the step 3 le'avla rafsi by the hyphen syllable process is to use any standard "iy", and NO letters are deleted rafsi, or even more than one likefrom the le'avla: the "rafsi" a lujvo (with some restrictions),form of a le'avla is the le'avla as a classifier. You then take aitself. The reason is shown by Lojbanized form of the word to bean example Nora invented while borrowed, which must have: reviewing the 4th edition of - a final vowel Loglan 1 (1989), which had the - no letter 'y' type 4 le'avla "protoni" and - no impermissible medial "*nukli" (not valid in Lojban, consonant pairs. hence the asterisk). Without The classifier is 'glued on' "iy" hyphenation in le'avla-based with a vocalic consonant 'l', lujvo, the le'avla compound 'n', or 'r', which also conve- "*protonynukli" breaks into rafsi niently makes the first consonantas "pro-ton-nukli" and is thus cluster in the word NOT a invalid. permissible initial ('m' would be For easing recognition of acceptable except when it might le'avla compounds, it has become form the consonant clusters "ml" standard to surround the "iy" or "mr"). Most of the problems joints with close-commas is in le'avla coining result from print, ensuring that the hyphen the possibility of parts of the is treated as a separate syllable word absorbing sounds that are and aiding visual recognition. supposed to be part of adjacent An example is: words, with the combination then "djarspageti,iy,sanso" breaking up into different words ("spaghetti sauce"). than you intend. The most well-known (because 4. There are as yet no official difficult to check for) such step 4 le'avla in Lojban, le'avla problem is that associ- although some will probably be ated with the aforementioned proposed as samples when we "*slinku'i" test - "*slinku'i" publish the reference book in a can be seen to be an invalid few months. An example might in- le'avla because if you use it clude "protoni" ("proton"), as with "pa": "pa slinku'i", the 84 mentioned above, which breaks no endeavor, that it violates Zipf's rules. law to have such a frequent word These words should be made by be as long as step 3 le'avla must people skilled in Lojban word- inherently be. Step 4 le'avla making, and familiar with the are a formal alternative to previous body of such words to having Lojban suffer the prevent conflicts. irregular Zipfean shortenings The words need no classifier that occur in natural language - rafsi, and may utilize any of thelike "teevee" for "television". valid le'avla wordform space. As With no usage history yet, stated above, there is no simple we've never bothered to make algorithm for this space, and standards for step 4 le'avla. making these words correctly is aRecent discussion of culture trial-and-error-aided-by-growing-words suggests that any culture experience process. whose name acquires any Lojban currently disallows significant use in Lojban will le'avla from invading gismu spaceget a step 4 le'avla, giving more to allow type 4 words like equality with the historical "*nukli". This is primarily an culture gismu. This will then aesthetic principle, since gismu answer most, if not all of the like the culture words are in criticisms of the cultural gismu. effect just such le'avla. But we call them gismu, and they gain _________________________________ the key advantage of gismu-form ________________ in having shorter rafsi. (A secondary principle which necessitates that any such The Culture gismu Revisited: le'avla be made only under Cultural Neutrality and the gismu tightly controlled conditions, is List that gismu must be prevented fromby John Cowan and Bob LeChevalier what is called 'packing', being (with comments by Arthur Hyun and so alike in sound that noise or Bob Chassell) slight errors in pronunciation makes them easily misheard. Even The following breaks down the with our experience in gismu cultural gismu, by category. All making and with relatively simplethese words end in "-o" and we rules on packing, we've needed a attempted to draw them from the computer check on the gismu relevant language directly rather making process that has found than being manufactured through many conflicts missed by this the usual process of combining tricky test.) the six source languages. Some We have few useful standards words fall into more than one yet for deciding that a word de- category. serves this privilege enough to invade gismu space, other than 1) Lojban itself: the class decisions that were lojbo Lojbanic made for culture words and "cmavo" and "lujvo" which are 2) The words for six source themselves self-borrowings from languages used in Lojban gismu- malglico Lojban tanru - "cmalu- making: valsi" and "pluja-valsi" for jungo Chinese glico JCB's English "little words" or English "LWs" and "complexes" or "Cpxs". xindo Hindi spano Spanish So for a while at least, the bar rusko Russian xrabo against gismu-shaped le'avla willArabic continue. The qualification for a step 4 3) The words for six other widely le'avla is that it be a word used spoken languages that were on sufficiently often, probably the list of candidates for outside of a single field of gismu-making: 85 bengo Bengali fraso 4) xurdo Urdu French is the name for Hindi written dotco German ponjo in Arabic script. It is Japanese culturally unacceptable to the porto Portuguese baxso Moslem speakers of the language Malay-Indonesian to refer to it as Hindi, although linguists classify (The word for Japan is from them as the same tongue. "Nippon"; legal Lojbanizations of that word starting with 'n' 5) Large countries (gugde) which would not have been speak any of these 14 pronounceable by the Japanese languages, where their names with buffering the consonant differ from the language names: cluster. The word for Malay- 5a) glico gugde: Indonesian is from their word merko American sralo "bahasa" for "language", Australian because they have no word for brito British kadno their common heritage other Canadian than that one.) skoto Scottish 5b) spano gugde: gento Argentinian mexco Mexican xispo Hispanic (generic term) 5c) rusko gugde: softo Soviet (The current upheaval in the Soviet Union may affect the usefulness of this word, and may require a few new rusko gugde words for seceding states. We do not expect to make official changes before the reference book is published.) 5d) xrabo gugde: jerxo Algerian misro Egyptian rakso Iraqi jordo Jordanian lubno Lebanese libjo Libyan morko Moroccan sadjo Saudi sirxo Syrian filso Palestinian (include d for historical reasons and to be neutral in the ongoing cul- tural dispute in the Middle East 5e) baxso gugde: bindo Indonesian meljo Malaysian 5f) porto gugde: brazo Brazilian porto Portuguese 5g) xindo gugde: kisto Pakistani xindo India (The Hindi name for India - "Bharat" could not be used due to rafsi packing. 6) The continents of the Earth: 86 friko African dzepo merko bangu merbau American Antarctic English xazdo Asiatic sralo merko kulnu merklu American Australian culture ropno European bemro North merko gugde mergu'e ter American ritory of polno Polynesian/Oceanian) American people ketco South American merko jecta merjecta ter ritory ruled by 7) A few smaller cultures with the American widespread historical or cultural government influence: merko natmi mernai American xelso Greek xebro Hebrew ethnos/ nation latmo Latin srito Sanskrit merko turni mertru American government 8) semto Semitic merko ke ralju lidne (Judeo-Arabic) merli'e American is a major language family president encompassing two of the major cultures included in the list. These will typically used as "Indo-European" is lujvo by assigning merko as a internationally a compound word, gismu, and ensuring it has a and was not given a gismu. rafsi, we make it easier to do so. Such words will be shorter, 9) The major religions: and hence will satisfy the need budjo Buddhist xriso of speakers who want/need them. Christian We have taken the cultures that xebro Hebrew muslo are part of Loglan/Lojban's Islamic definition as being most populous jegvo Jehovah/Yahweh(-ist) for such gismu. This is NOT for = Judeo-Christian the purpose of denigrating Bul- dadjo Tao(-ist) garia, Hungary, Persia/Iran, Swe- (Note that the deities of theseden, nor Kurdistan or Moldavia. religions are NOT represented While none of these have gismu, by the gismu. "la jegvon." canand hence do not have rafsi, they be the Judeo-Christian deity. can be made as le'avla, and those Note that while the Islamic le'avla can be used in lujvo too, deity "Allah" is considered thebut they won't be as short. same as the Judeo-Christian Typically, as a Type 3 le'avla, one, cultural reasons require these will incorporate the second "la .alax." term of the above tanru as a classifier. For example, in the All cultural words have the placecase of Iran (we'll presume Farsi structure: as the logical choice for borrowing): x1 is <adjective> in property x2 rupnrfarsi fepnrfarsi but these words are expected to banrfarsi be seldom-used as bare selbri. gugrfarsi kulrfarsi turnrfarsi Instead, they will be used in etc. tanru and lujvo. The primary cultural tanru/lujvo are the obvious ones. For example: merko rupnu meryru'u Ame rican dollar merko fepni merfe'i Ame rican cent/penny 87 Things only get moderately gismu were the shortest content 'inequitable' when you have to words they should be used for the make 'real' lujvo out of these most frequent concepts. He made le'avla. If a Persian rug is a gismu for most of the first 1000 "kulrfarsi lolgai" as a lujvo it concepts, unless there was an becomes "kulrfarsi,iy,lolgai" obvious 2-term lujvo based on where as an "American rug" (if ithigher frequency words. He then rated a lujvo) might be the continued to the 2000 and 3000 shorter "merlolgai". concept levels, and ended up with The set of gismu is certainly about 750 gismu. in one sense arbitrary - I can't From 1962-82 this list grew to state any external standard about 950. Because there were no justifying the entire selection, le'avla in the language design at and indeed we do not claim that point, all of the elements perfectly objective judgement. were added as gismu, and many But I still claim that for all other rather idiosyncratic words practical purposes the set is like 'billiards'; if someone culturally neutral. Such a claimwrote something in Loglan and is always relative - there could needed a word, a gismu was often me 'more perfect' neutrality in the result. After the 1982 theory; I think we did a good revision of the language, there job, and I do not think the list was the capability for le'avla, is 'slanted towards a particular and some of these gismu were culture', unless that culture is removed, but JCB's Loglan still the non-existent Lojban culture. has a lot of historically The set of gismu were derived idiosyncratic gismu which are over 35 years. Jim Brown gismu only because they had no selected the first set based on 3obvious 2-4 term tanru/lujvo 20 or 4 sources, including BASIC years ago. English, some studies of words This is the list we inherited that are 'biologically primitive'when we remade the list for in that they appear to be Lojban. Among the words were primitive in most every language,culture words for the 8 source etc. He then used the Helen languages for Institute Loglan, Eaton study of the most (as well as separate gismu for frequently used concepts in 4 the people and the culture) plus languages some idiosyncratic cultures that (English/German/French/Spanish). had been added haphazardly, This list is of course European including Italian, Scottish, biased, but it is the only such Roman, and Amerind. We decided comparative study across several to regularize the set based on languages for word/concept some external standard - the frequencies, and Helen Eaton was culture words we used were those doing so for AL research and was for JCB's 8 languages, and the presumably aware of the other 4 we considered for Lojban neutrality issue. In any case, (we once planned to use 12 there is reason to believe that languages instead of 6, then cut the list is more biased in its back to 6 for several reasons). obsolescence (being 60 years old)We added the religions that were than it is toward a specific primary in the source cultures, culture - key concepts in scienceand separate words for the sev- and medicine are unknown in the eral countries that used the list, while certain concepts no source languages. Because we had longer important rate highly. Itle'avla, if we could not assign a is still a standard, and the onlygood rafsi to any recognizable one. form of a country's culture word, Brown assumes that Zipf's law we left it out - the assignment holds. Zipf noted that word of a short rafsi was the main length was inversely proportion- justification for these words. ate to word frequency. Since 88 The point of all this is that cover any concept that is the culture words were added important across cultures according to a standard that is (reasonable I set at about 4 inherent in the history of the terms, the longest lujvo ever language and its design - thus nomade and used as a 'real word' one really had to be an 'objec- for Loglan). Words that are tive judge'. If it is accepted specific to one culture, or are that our "Chicken MacNuggets" part of the international word formation algorithm is vocabulary of science are culturally neutral, being based relegated to le'avla. on 6 languages, then the culture BUT, in going to this words meet the same criteria of definition of our gismu coverage, neutrality. In addition, the we did not claim the need to words are not slanted towards oneeliminate every gismu that had no culture - if so, we would have obvious intercultural use. not used the Egyptian word for Indeed, if it was already made as Egypt, the German word for a gismu, we kept it unless Germany, etc. Yes, we had to someone explicitly proposed its leave some cultures out, and somedeletion accompanied by (usually) countries that have speakers of a 2-term lujvo for the concept. the languages we do have. But About 20 odd words were so the decision was not wholly deleted before the baseline. arbitrary. There is no intent to delete any The rest of the gismu were gismu prior to the 5-year usage selected to complete various baseline, because the only incomplete sets recognized by a meaningful criteria now are that Roget-like study of the gismu by would justify a deletion in the Paul Doudna. Later, when baseline period would be Athelstan joined the project, we something like the word being conducted two further reviews impossibly vague (not likely against Roget's Thesaurus lookingsince we have place structures to achieve 'completeness' in thatfor each). Arguments of usage - the gismu could be used to form either potential or actual are lujvo covering every concept in irrelevant; that is the point of Roget. Roget is of course En- a usage baseline, to see whether glish-biased, but it also they are used. purports to be a comprehensive As a result of this long survey of the semantic word spaceevolutionary process, it is clear and it is in that mode that we that the list is not an arbitrary used the list. representation of one or two In the course of doing so we persons' biases. Being based on recognized that the rationale forthe concept of 'semantic space', gismu has changed since JCB firstwith some verification of started Loglan (and in his usefulness in a few cultures, the versions this is also true, list is close to comprehensive though he has never so-stated). (occasional new words will be At one point Brown thought his proposed when we find a gap). words were in some absolute senseThe list is not angled towards a 'primitive', partly based on his specific one or even identifiable biological primitive research. set of cultures, except that if This is not the current practice some culture has a truly in assigning gismu. gismu are inimportant concept that is not no way assumed to be the 'most shared by any of the Eaton lan- basic', 'most important', or guages, it may currently be 'most' anything for one or omitted. In which case, it will several cultures. likely become a gismu later when We now claim ONLY that the recognized. Beyond this, I do gismu we have are sufficient, not see the claims that the Loj- using the lujvo-making rules to ban list is biased in some make reasonable length lujvo to recognizable way towards any 89 language. It can only be claimed developers, sufficient to meet that it is possibly biased away what they think are the needs from some less common of enough Lojban speakers and languages/cultures in the most experimenters for Lojban to trivial sense, since we are meet the purposes of the talking about exactly one word language; per such culture. No doubt if any of these less common cultures* to extent: develops a significant Lojban as best the developers can, speaker base during the formative particularly with reference to years of the language, the Zipfian and other practical culture will be assigned a gismu. concerns. The remaining element words may plausibly be biased towards Arthur: English or at least toward Euro- Whoever has to judge what is pean cultures. These were "important" or less so will have justified by their use in a bias. metaphors before we had the now clear policy against heavily Bob Chassell: figurative metaphors. Even so, Yes, indeed. So therefore, there are ways to define these whoever judges what to include is words based on the properties obligated to do the best she can. adjectivally attributed to the Since there is little desire to substance in non-technical give everyone his own gismu, the compounds, leaving the 'chemical question is "to whom to give word' either for a lujvo (using gismu?" If the selected gismu "curve" or "xukmi") or a le'avla.turn out to be sufficient for Thus "nikle" is fine as is, enough of those who are experi- "romge" is any highly reflective menting with and speaking Lojban, non-tarnishing metal, "navni" is then the selection will have been an inert gas (this one change wasOK. adopted officially at LogFest), Of course, the decision is not "kliru" can be used for all the easy; to me, the best beginning halogens, (people put kliru is to use three criteria: tergu'i on their cars), etc. population, wealth/power, This eliminates the most obvious frequency of occurrence in the part of the bias, but more kinds of speech the language importantly allowing the words todevelopers anticipate for Lojban. be useful. These criteria are obviously _________________________________unfair, and they have a bias; but _______________ enough Lojban speakers may be sufficiently satisfied by them Arthur Hyun comments: for Lojban to succeed. The point is that if anyone wishes to maintain the pretense Arthur Hyun: of Lojban being "culturally neu- Therefore, either give up tral", then every culture is trying to claim "neutrality" or going to have to be considered treat them all the same. the same. Bob Chassell: Bob Chassell responds: This statement is a The consequence does not followmisunderstanding of what neu- from the `if' clause. The trality is about. Neutrality is predicate "culturally neutral" not and cannot be absolute. has several places so far Consider as an analogy, Swedish unexpressed. neutrality during WWII. At the beginning of the war, when it * by standards: appeared that Germany would in this case, standards of become the hegemonic power in mostly middle-class, American Europe, Sweden cooperated more 90 with Germany than with the Allies. (Remember: the invasion Another way to tackle the issue of Norway was designed to protectis to turn my questions around: shipments of Swedish iron ore in coastal freighters; very likely, * Is the current design of Lojban the Swedish mining regions would too culture bound for have been occupied by the Germans experiments relating to tense if the Swedes had not in grammar to succeed? cooperated.) When the Allied coalition was seen to be winning,* Is the current design of Lojban Sweden cooperated more with it, too culture bound for speakers permitting, for example, people in Asia, Africa, and Europe to such as Niels Bohr to be flown accept? (One possibility is out of Sweden by the British. that Lojban's logical bias may Similarly, Lojban cannot be be more significant than its absolutely neutral, neither as a other biases.) practical matter nor as a matter of being able to define what `absolute neutrality' means. (Obviously, to me at least, `treating them all the same' is NOT neutral, but is very biased; is that not apparent to you?) Lojban has several goals relating to cultural neutrality: * to serve as a vehicle for intercultural experiments; For Lojban to be useful, this means that the undesired influences of Lojban should both be small enough for the experiments and be less than the undesired influences of alternative vehicles, such as Urdu or Esperanto. If you are testing some group whose culture lacks a gismu, perhaps you would invent a nonce gismu; not all five-letter forms are currently used, just as not all shorter forms are assigned cmavo. * to serve as an international language; For Lojban to be useful, this means that enough people must not be overly offended by Lojban's biases. * to serve as a test for `logical language'; This means that Lojban must be biased towards logic in some way, which biases it against languages such as English. 91 le lojbo se ciska (continued) And now, how about some poetry? Michael Helsem sent me a translation of the first stanza of the Esperanto Hymn into Lojban. The original (1), and Michael's English translation (2) are given first. Then comes his Lojban translation into a limerick! He made only minor errors, none of them grammatical (e.g. the place structure of fasnu has changed, making it non-useful for his purposes. So my correction of his translation (3) is immediately after with Michael's intended English translation (4) along with what he actually said. Finally, I have a pronunciation guide for those who want to read it aloud. (1) La Espero (2) En la mondon venis nova sento, Into the world came (a) new feeling, Tra la mondo iras forta voko through the world goes (a) strong call; per flugiloj de facila vento by (the) wings of (a) gentle wind, nun de loko flugu gxi al loko now fly it from place to place. (3) le cnino menjvinu goi ko'a pu selfri le terdi ku .o'a .i ta'i lo brife ku leko nunjimpe ca selbei fi role selvo'a (4) (Intended) (Actual) A new mind-view A (specific) new mind-view (ko'a) happened on the Earth (pride!) is-experienced-by the Earth (Pride!) Like a breeze Having-form a breeze let your understanding Your (imperative! - Make it true!) thing_understood be transferred to all the voiced-ones. now is-sent to all-the- voiced_ones. (5) le cnino menjvinu goi ko'a /leh,SHNEE,noh mehn,ZHVEE,noo goi,KOH,hah/ pu selfri le terdi ku .o'a /poo,SEHL,free leh,TEHR,dee ku. OH,hah/ .i ta'i lo brife /.ee,TAH,hee loh,BREE,feh/ ku le ko nunjimpe /koo,LEH,koh noon,ZHEEM,peh/ ca selbei fi ro le selvo'a /shah,SEHL,bei fee,ROH,leh sehl,VOH,hah/ But I wasn't happy with this. Not only might some Esperantists take offense at having their song of great traditional importance turned into a limerick (which in English culture is almost universally used for non-serious verse), it was not a very 92 exact translation of the Esperanto. At Nick Nicholas's instigation, I've lately been translating a bit of poetry, so it was only natural that I tried to do this one. I was surprised to find that my result was rhythmic (though not the exact same rhythm as the original), and it was fairly easy to make it rhyme a little bit too. My new translation is given as (6), and I've added pronunciation and translation (7). 93 (6) la'ede'e cu se pacna .i le cnino selcinmo cu se lifri loi terdi .isemu'ibo fe'eroroi vliki'a .i .e'o ko sepi'o le mlibrife voknalci fairbevri ru rode da'ada (7) The following is-hoped-for The new thing-emotionally-felt is-experienced-by of-the-mass-of- the-Earth Therefore motivationally, everywhere powerful-cry_out (Petition!) (imperative!) You, usingly, mild-breeze voice-wings distribute-carry (the earlier) it from every-something to all- other-somethings. le cnino selcinmo cu se lifri loi terdi /leh,SHNEE,noh sehl,SHEEN,moh shoo-seh,LEE,free loi,TER,dee/ .i se mu'i bo fe'e ro roi vliki'a /.ee-seh,MOO,hee-boh feh-heh,ROH,roi vlee,KEE,hah/ .i .e'o ko se pi'o mlibrife voknalci /.ee .EH,hoh koh-seh,PEE.hoh mlee,BREE,feh vohk,NAHL,shee/ fairbevri ru ro de da'a da /fai-rr,BEHV,ree roo,ROH,deh dah,HAH,da/ But I didn't stop there. I'd been carrying the seeds of an idea for an ode to Lojban, and this exercise got my writing urge going. Within an hour, I had written my first original Lojban poem, which can be seen to be both rhythmic and, with poetic license, rhyming. This is given as (8) with pronunciation and translation in (9). This is the first 'original' poem I've written since 6th grade, some 25 years ago. I'm actually quite pleased with it, and with the fact that it was so easy. Maybe I'll even write more (and inflict it on the world). But one thing is for sure: if >I< can write Lojban poetry, anyone can. (8) doi bangu co satci joi ji'a na'e satci do'u dunda le ko selkai co sidbo velcusku loi terdi selvo'a noi nitcu lo nintadji be lo nu menbenji fo loi prenu co simxu .i doi selmenli co cfipu be le so'imei poi djica leka jimpe do'u bevri ko le cfari lei zgatirna .i .e'o ko cu klina selcusku gi'e jicla le no'e farvi pe ri'a lenu seljimte loi malgerna (9) doi bangu co satci joi ji'a na'e satci /doi,BAHN,goo shoh,SAH,chee zhoi,ZHEE,hah nah- heh,SAH,chee/ 94 do'u dunda le ko selkai co sidbo velcusku /doh-hoo,DOON,dah leh-koh,SEHL,kai shoh,SEED,boh vehl,SHOO,skoo/ loi terdi selvo'a noi nitcu lo nintadji /loi,TEHR,dee sehl,VOH,hah noi,NEE,choo loh- neen,TAH,jee/ be lo nu menbenji fo loi prenu co simxu /beh,LOH,noo mehn,BEHN,zhee foh-loi,PREH,noo shoh,SEEM,khoo/ O, language of-type exact mixed-with-in-addition non-exact (something) gives your (imperative - make it true!) characteristic of-type idea expression-mode to of-the-mass-of-the-Earthly voiced-ones, who incidentally need the new-method of events-of mind-sending to of-the-mass-of-persons of-type mutual. O, language, both exact and non-exact, Let your characteristic mode of idea-expression be given to the voiced ones of the earth, who need this new method of mutually communicating between minds. .i doi selmenli co cfipu be le so'imei poi djica /.ee-doi-sehl,MEHN,lee shoh,SHFEE,poo beh-leh,SOH-HI,mei poi,JEE,shah/ le ka jimpe do'u bevri ko le cfari lei zgatirna /leh-kah,ZHEEM,peh doh-hoo,BEH,vree koh-leh,SHFAH,ree lei- zgah,TEER,nah/ .i .e'o ko cu klina selcusku gi'e jicla /.ee .EH,hoh koh-shoo,KLEE,nah sehl,SHOO,skoo gee- heh,ZHEESH,lah/ le no'e farvi pe ri'a le nu seljimte loi malgerna /leh-noh-heh,FAHR,vee peh,REE,hah-leh noo-sehl,ZHEEM,teh loi- mahl,GEHR,nah/ O thought-about-things of-type confusing to-the-many-some who desire understanding-ness, (something) carries you (imperative! - make it true!) from-the initiators to-the observing-hearers (listeners) (Petition!) You (imperative!) be clearly-expressed-things, and stir the neutral-non-developing (stagnant) which-are-caused-by the- event-of being limited-by Derogative-Grammar. O ideas which confuse the many who desire understanding, 95 Let yourself be carried from those who initiate you to those who listen. Please be clearly expressed, stirring the stagnation caused by the limits of (Ugh!) Grammar. ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Another poem. Well, actually part of a song. The following is Mark Shoulson's first Lojban translation attempt: the beginning of the Doors' song People Are Strange. loi prenu cu cizra .inaja do ca fange .i loi flira cu simlu to'e melbi .inaja do ca na se kansa .i loi ninmu cu mabla simlu .inaja do ca na se djica .i loi klaji cu to'e xutla .inaja do ca badri fa'o The English: People are strange / When you're a stranger; Faces look ugly / When you're alone. Women seem wicked / When you're unwanted; Streets are uneven / When you're down. Bob's comments (mostly answers to questions from Mark): A most excellent first effort! Bravo! I find little to complain about. I might have used the less literal "pluta" instead of "klaji", or even "tadji", thus conveying what I think the intent is better, but this is 'stylistics', which Lojban has none of yet. Of course, Nora found one big mistake I missed (see below). Mark: I use 'loi' all the time. Should it be "lo'i"? Or something else? Bob: You done good! This is about as good an English text for "loi" as there is. "lo'i" would give you a set. Sets generally are not ugly or wicked, and seldom are described as strange or uneven - but you don't want the set anyway, but the members. 96 Mark: I don't much care for ".inaja". I want a way to say "if but not necessarily only if". I assume there's a better way. I copied this usage from lojbab's translation of Language. [by Suzanne Vega - see JL14]. Nora: With ".inaja", what you have is "IF people are strange, THEN you are a stranger". I think you wanted ".ijanai": "People are strange, IF you are a stranger." This seems a virtually exact translation. The Lojban statement is false only when people aren't strange but you ARE a stranger. It makes no claims about what happens if you are not a stranger. (Bob: I completely missed this - which may be why I did so poorly in logic when I was in school.) Mark: Does the use of "ca" make sense? I mean to get across the sense that faces look ugly if you're down at the time (hence the English "when"). Bob: Seems fine to me. You could also do something with one of the "under conditions" modals (selma'o BAI), used exactly in the same place you used "ca". Mark: Should "mabla" in line 5 be "palci"? Am I using "to'e" right? Is there a better way to express these things? Bob: Yes, "mabla" is the right word, given the English semantics. You certainly are not judging women as morally evil ("palci"). You might use "xlali", but the English use of "bitch" in such situations is most certainly "mabla", not "xlali", and I suspect that the usage here is more suggestive of such cursing. "to'e" is fine. Mark: Should I be using the tanru I use? What would be better? Bob: I would have omitted "simlu" in both the second and third lines, or I would have included them in all four; they are implicitly there. You could have done a couple of things to fiddle around. For example, the 2nd half of each line, rather than being ".inaja ... ca ...", could have been a subordinate clause attached to the selma'o BAI word for "under conditions": loi prenu cu cizra va'o le nu do fange or you can even take out the "do" - the English really just means "someone", and use the "observer" modal of BAI: loi prenu cu cizra ga'a lo fange or you can make all four based on "simlu", which has an under conditions place and an observer. Note that "simlu" has a cleft place structure and may need changing. x1 and x2 are redundant, and a revision would be "x1 seems to be so to x2 under conditions x3". The first version following uses the current cleft structure; the second version uses the possible revised structure: loi prenu cu simlu le ka ri cizra ku roda le nu da fange x1 } simlu {x2 } x3 {x4 } 97 le nu loi prenu cu cizra cu simlu roda le nu da fange {x1 } simlu x2 {x3 } To me these last seem very analytical, not poetic, and I prefer the "ga'a" version. Mark: I realize that some selma'o UI words would probably belong here, but I'm not positive which to use or even if I'd want them there. There's something unsettling about the unemotionality you get without them which fits the mood of the song. Or not. Bob: I personally think they don't belong, because the author has used the impersonal "you"/"someone". If the pronoun had been "mi", the attitudinals are vital. There are SOME attitudinals that might apply anyway, and perhaps some discursives, but there is no vital need for any. 98 One last poem: Nick Nicholas's translation of a Greek poem ko doi loi tarci na fegycrugunta mi mu'i lenu mi ru'inai sanga ca le nicte .imu'ibo le nu mi cordri kei cei broda (to .u'anairo'i doi lemi se xe'ikre toi) gi'e klama fi le zdani gi'e bacru lu'e broda Translation: literal Lojban Imperative you, O Stars [make-it] not that [you] angry-utter-attack [=scold] me motivated-by the-event I occasionally sing during the night. Because the-event I am pain-sad in-the heart ((Emotional loss!) O my black-haired one) and [I] come from the nest [=house] and uttered the symbol for it (the event of me being pain-sad). .i .ai mi bacru lu'e broda ga'a loi tarci noi mipri gi'eji'a na pante (to .uinairo'i do mo'u bapli mi ti toi) ca so'ilo cacra fi le nuntirna fe'o (Intent!) I utter the symbol for it (the event of me being pain- sad) observed by Stars who keep-secret and-additionally not protest ((Emotional unhappiness!) you are-at-the-completion-of forcing me to do this-here [presumably this poem]), during many hours, about this event-of-hearing. Literal English from the Greek Stars, not-imperative me you-scold that I-sing the night because I- had pain in-the heart (ach dark-diminutive-neuter my) and I-came- out and it I-said. To-the stars future-tense I-say the pain my that not it they- witness [metaphorically, bear witness] that they-have and [also] patience (ach how me you-rendered) with the hours and they-listen. Colloquial English from the Greek, with notes Stars, do not scold me, that I sing in the night. (clearly an imperative. The "pou" in the original is no clearer that "that", and sorta corresponds to "va'o" or "tesau", but of course means "for singing") Because I had a pain in my heart (apostrophe: Oh, my dark-haired little one), and I came out and uttered it (the pain). I will utter my pain to the stars, who don't betray it (present tense; the verb literally means "witness", and implies that the stars keep one's confidence) and which also have the patience (apostrophe: Oh how you've rendered me/ Oh whata bad state I am in because of you!) to listen for hours. ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ On Observatives Jim Carter writes: by Bob LeChevalier in response to At the L.A. group meeting we Jim Carter discussed "observatives", Initially we had trouble anal- 99 yzing the meaning of the bare 'subject') adds strong emphasis selbri "nanmu"; we concluded thatto the selbri as the critical new it meant "manliness is happening information being pointed out in here", but the distinction expressing the sentence. between that and "a man", while Other than this strong obviously real, is hard to emphasis, "nanmu" is treated as explain. any ellipsized sentence is, all unspecified sumti are still You are correct that this is anactually there, but are 'observative'. unexpressed. They thus have the For the benefit of those who implicit value of "zo'e" may have old copies of The (something I'm not bothering to Loglanist: in TL3, Scott Layson specify because it isn't (supported by Chuck Barton) important in this pragmatic con- proposed that the bare selbri be text.) In the normal observative interpreted as an observative, case, with a physical "subject" after the natural language usage ellipsized as for "fagri", a more reflected in shouting "Fire" accurate specification of the ("fagri") upon sight of smoke (assumti would be "(pointing) ta compared to the then current barefagri"). But "ta" would cause selbri as an imperative, a the speaker to look at the command). (At that time there pointer (to see what is pointing was no clear way to declare an where, not look for the fire and observative, though "le nanmu" run - in hearing the observative and "da nanmu" (using current "karce" while standing in the Lojban words) were considered. street, the distraction of having (For newer Lojbanists, please to look at the pointer could be forgive my extensive references fatal.) to old Institute Loglan in this There thus is nothing about response.) looking at some "manliness is Scott and Chuck argued that in happening here". That would most languages, an imperative is either be the observative "nu in some way inflected, whereas nanmu" or "ka nanmu", which are observatives are not. We in turn equivalent to researched further in designing the Lojban version and found thatzo'e [cu] {nu <zo'e children first learn to speak [cu] nanmu [vau]> essentially in observatives: [kei]} "Mama!", "Doggy!", and occasion- Something is-an-event-of ally in attitudinally inflected something (else)'s being-a- observatives: "Milk?" (".au man. ladru"). My invention of the im- perative pro-sumti "ko" zo'e [cu] {ka <zo'e solidified the change, and this [cu] nanmu [vau]> is now one of the two major [kei]} identifiable differences between Something is-a-property-of Institute Loglan and Lojban, that something (else)'s being-a- is not simply an expansion of the man. language or a correction of hidden syntactic ambiguity. where different "zo'e"s can have "nanmu" is an observative different values. (I use because the selbri has been "manhood" for "nu nanmu" and atypically brought to the front "manliness" for "ka nanmu"; it is of the sentence. (Indeed in thisnot clear from Jim Carter's case it is the only thing in the example which he intends.) sentence, but this is beside the "A man" would be "pa nanmu", point. "klama le zarci" is also which is a shortened form of "pa an observative.) This movement, lo nanmu" "One something that and the explicit elliptical omis-really is a man". This is a sion of the x1 sumti (the sumti, not a complete sentence. 100 We rejected such a bare sumti as snime cu carvi" = "The snow a version of observative, as wellrains" and "loi mlatu je gerku cu as "lo nanmu" and "le nanmu" for carvi" = "Cats and dogs rain." - three reasons. the literal statement - NOT a First, as incomplete sentences,figure of speech.) the listener has to wait to be sure that the speaker isn't just _________________________________ hesitating before continuing with ________________ a selbri: "pa nanmu ...", "lo nanmu ...", "le nanmu ...". Predications and Identities These are equivalent to the by Bob LeChevalier trailing-off incomplete English sentences "One man ...", "A man A discussion on Lojban List ..."/"Some men ...", "The man/meneventually hinged on clarifying ...". In Lojban such incomplete the differences between 'predica- sentences are defined to be tions' and 'identities'. In his grammatical, and are typically writings on Loglan, Jim Brown has used to answer "ma" questions. long stressed this distinction, The latter two English transla- which is basic to predicate tions point out that Lojban logic. descriptors make no It has turned out, however, singular/plural distinction. that in both the Institute's and The second reason is that the our versions of Loglan, there is descriptors end up being the no grammatical difference between first word heard, not the selbri.predications and identities. In Shouting "A fire!" has less Lojban, we kept the two gram- impact than shouting "Fire!". matically distinct until this Finally, the versions with the last spring, when John Cowan extra cmavo have just that littleshowed using his E-BNF that the bit extra grammar and semantic distinction was illusory. Now, interpretation implicit in the identity sentences look like extra word. Observatives are predications and can be generally used in situations understood like them, and one where people don't want to take must recognize them by the use of the trouble (or in the case of specific cmavo that indicate the children, don't know how) to con-difference. struct a sentence with more Jim Carter observed that Lojban elaborate grammar, and/or don't "binxo" (keyword "become") could want the listener to take the be seen as a kind of identity time to interpret the grammar. claim, since in English, "become" is a future tense of "to be". Jim Carter: We must clarify that "binxo" is But we came up with a better rather to be contrasted with example: "cenba" ("vary") and "galfi" carvi It's raining ("modify"). This trio of gismu lo carvi Look, raindrops were assigned because old Loglan "cenja" ("change") which means The first English is a what "binxo" does, was often used reasonable colloquial translationin tanru and lujvo as if it meant of its Lojban. More exact is one of the other two words. "[Something] rains", or "Rain!" Institute Loglan solved the The second Lojban, a sumti, is problem by misusing its "madzo" the incomplete sentence "A rain- for the 'transitive' "change" of ing thing/Some rain ... [is doing"galfi"; "madzo" has the same something]", whereas Jim's meaning as Lojban's "zbasu" (to English would be expressed in make/construct ... out of ...). Lojban as "ko catlu .i carvi We separated the English word [dirgo]" or "ko catlu lenu carvi "change" into its three distinct [dirgo]. (The thing(s) raining meanings. need not be 'drops'. We say "lo 101 binxo changes into/becomes intending, but not saying "Bantha ... is a cat". cenba changes/varies in property ... galfi changes ... into ... The keywords were chosen to maximize the distinction. A similar problem was recognized with "gasnu" "do" last year. As noted in the discussion of cleft structures and sumti-raising above, "gasnu" is clarified to mean that x1 is the actor/agent in an event or action x2. We kept the keyword as "do" because "actor" and "agent" are much more familiar in English with meanings that have nothing to do with the Lojban "gasnu". "du" IS an identity 'predicate', and its morphology alone flags it as different from other predicate words. It claims that the two sumti on either side are alternate and equivalent designations for the same thing. Translate it best as the mathematical "=" sign. "du", other than in a mathematical context, has a somewhat metalinguistic effect. It equates two labels for the same thing. No other words in Lojban, other than the relativizers "po'u" and "no'u", and the assigners "goi" and "cei", have this metalinguistic effect.) As Lojban has grown, the role of "du" in Lojban has shrunk. Most noteworthy, the practice of using "du" for self- identification as taught in draft textbook lesson 1, is now frowned on: use "mi'e. .atlstan.", or mi se cmene zo .atlstan. (if your name happens to Lojbanize as ".atlstan."). It isn't wrong, but we do not want new Lojbanists concentrating on the use of "du" early in learning the language. Otherwise we get such unacceptable statements as: la banthas. du lo mlatu (1) Bantha = a/some cat(s) 102 Here we have a and more experienced Lojbanists legal/grammatical but probably try to answer. We prefer to see false statement. "lo mlatu" is ayour attempts at expressing it, description that can apply to a because 1) it means you tried and cat, or the members of any this isn't a trivial question; collection of cats, in the and 2) it helps us slant our universe of discourse (possibly explanation to fit your needs. including the non-domesticated Word translations need some species). I doubt that there kind of context for them to be exists anyone that would apply included in this feature. Thus, the name "la banthas." to all of some questions from Ivan these cats. If we were Derzhanski in his Lojban letter expressing the Linnean are not answered here. (Latin/Greek) name for the cat family, well, maybe ... From Coranth D'Gryphon: There is a 'predication' (as I have a few English statements opposed to 'identity') "predicatethat I'd like the appropriate word" that is near-equivalent to meanings for: "du", and that is "mintu" - "x1 is identical to x2" ("du" while 1) some people (plural of person, etymologically tied to "dunli" is referring to existing not really related due to place individuals); structure differences). There 2) some people (plural of person, have been some probably referring to hypothetical legitimate but inconclusive individuals); debates about whether "du" and 3) people (the set of all "mintu" are the same predicate. persons, treated as a lump Nora and I currently feel that unit); "mintu" can be used more broadly,4) people (the set of all as in "this plate is the same as persons, treated as in- that one", when the two are dividuals); interchangeable for the intended 5) person (the set of all the function. "du" would not be things that make up a person, correct in translating such a considered a unit). statement, since presumably "this plate" and "that one" refer to Bob LeChevalier: different objects.) These 5 mass statements are Predicate logic does not write simple, but look carefully at the identity sentences as predicates.quantifiers in my answer. I have Lojban's predicate grammar put normally ellipsized requires even an identity quantifiers in brackets - they sentence to be phrased as a are needed to properly understand predication. As such, Lojban is what is going on. Afterwards I a mirror image of natural summarize the default quantifiers languages. But the use of a for the 4 descriptors involved. cmavo in an identity sentence Note that none of your examples should alert you to the very realinvolve "lo'i" or "le'i" the set difference between them. descriptors. "lo'i vinji" is the set of all things that really are _________________________________airplanes, and does not relate to ________________ their components. How to say it 1. su'ore lo [ro] prenu A New Regular? Feature or su'ore le [su'ore] prenu We are happy to take good ideas or from the Loglan Institute, and su'ore da poi prenu are thus instituting (!?) a new feature, where you ask how do say2. Either of the first two above something which is not obvious, for 1; "da poi ..." claims 103 actual existence of something Compare this with: that meets the restrictive bridi that appears after "poi".su'o lo ci mela studjez. The distinction between "lo" su'o lo ci and "le" is that "lo" refers to mela studjez. things that have the relevant at-least-one of the-set-of-all- property, whereas "le" refers Stooges (which set has only to the speaker's intended cardinality 3) referent which is presumed to be understood by the listener ro le su'o prenu or the speaker would have givenro le more information to restrict Each of the-set-of-things-that-I- the referent. We have also describe-as given the two descriptors su'o prenu different default quantifiers, persons (which set-in-mind has as shown in the bracketed cardinality at-least-1) values above. 3. piro loi [ro] prenu pisu'o loi ro prenu 4. ro lo [ro] prenu pisu'o loi [ro] le ro prenu ro prenu 5. [piro] lei pa prenu at-least-some of the-mass-of-all- Using "loi' with "pa" after the who-are-persons (cardinality descriptor like this would 'all') incidentally claim that there is only one person in the universe).piro lei su'o prenu piro lei The big 'secret' in all of thisall of the-massified-set-of-the- is the default quantifiers - the things-that-I- numbers inside and outside of the describe-as descriptor. The inside number su'o prenu enumerates the set meeting the persons description, while the outside (cardinality 'at least 1') quantifiers selects from that set. le/lei/le'i must have at least Examples: one in the set. lo/loi/lo'i need not have any in su'o lo ro prenu the set (in which case the su'o lo "su'o" means "at least 0" since ro prenu "ro" is also = "0"). at-least-one of the-set-of-all- who-are persons (which set has In normal usage, all of the cardinality 'all') above implicit quantifiers are left unstated. You only put in a quantifier if it differs from the default value. The resemblance of "lo" to English indefinites is purely a result of our choice for the implicit quantifier. In JCB's Loglan the equivalent word was "lea" which had the default quantifier "ro *lea ro prenu" ("all of the set of all who really are persons") which is only useful for logically risky universal claims, whereas "lo" is useful for indefinites, where the speaker has no particular referents in mind. But "lo" is still not quite the same as English indefinites ("a" or 104 "some" as articles). If you haveHow to say: "bias", as in "x is even the slightest restriction onbiased/directed/ influenced in the set of persons being direction y by applied force z"; described and do not make the restriction explicit with John: poi/pe/po'u etc., the you should I'm not sure if the physical or use "le" instead of "lo", and usethe metaphorical sense of "bias" explicit "su'o" to replace the is wanted here. For the latter, implicit outside quantifier "ro":"se xlura" = "x1 is influenced by "su'o le ro prenu" ("some of all x2 to do or be x3 under persons that I have in mind") - conditions x4" seems to do the usually shortened to "su'o le trick. prenu". Dave: Dave Cortesi: How to say: tend, as in x tends I ran off down the following toward y (naturally, of itself) dead-end alleys and would appreciate anybody's comments on Bob: how to escape them... "jinzi" = "x1 is the innate property of x2" - How to say: "habit" and/or The other portion of the tanru "habitual". could be either "lakne" = "x1 is - How to say: "customary". likely under conditions x2" tcaci = "custom"; is it enough to"tarti" = "x1 behaves as x2 under use the quality abstractor "ka"? condition x3" Is ka tcaci = "customary"? depending on context, or possibly other choices. John Cowan: "Habit" and "custom" are the sameDave: gismu: "tcaci". You would say How to say: "thoughtless". "customary" by using this gismu Negation of "sanji" = "aware"? in a tanru: "a habitual walker" And then abstracted? = "lo tcaci cadzu". [Bob adds: How to say: "unwise". Negation of You can also use "ta'e" as a "prije" and abstracted? tense-like inflection for "habitually".] John: No need to abstract here. Dave: Abstraction corresponds to things How to say: "cultural", "x like "-ness" and "-ity". "lo springs from culture y". Here "kana'e prije" = "an unwise person"; kulnu" is clearly not adequate. "lo na'e prije cusku" = "unwise statements". "Thoughtless" has John: several English meanings, I "lo se kulnu" are the people who think. exhibit a culture. [Bob adds: loi kulnu can be used for some Bob adds: "ka sanji" is thus portion or element of culture.] "consciousness" or "awareness". "nu prije" and "ka prije" are Dave: different interpretations of How to say: "tilt", as in "x "wisdom". I would do most tilts/leans at angle y in frame varieties of "thoughtless" as z"; combinations of "claxu" = "lack" and "pensi" = "think" or "kurji" John: = "taking care of", or as "na'e", "salpo" = "x1 is sloped/inclined "no'e" and "to'e" negations of with angle x2 to horizon/frame the latter two. x3" Dave: Dave: And here's a biggie: how do you say "idiom"? An idiom is not 105 simply a metaphor, it's a best if space is too limited? metaphor that through constant There are a lot of aphorisms that usage has lost its metaphoric can be translated, and a lot of indirection and simply means whatconcepts to explore Lojbanically. it originally suggested. (Like The first exercise is a study "red herring".) in happiness. It all started with Nick Nicholas lecturing John: about "happiness": We don't have those in Lojban. (zo'o) In fact, to bring in a parenthesis, there is a massive Bob: A lot of possible tanru history to the verb to be used here. How about: corresponding to Happy. It "se farvi smuni valsi" = alludes, of course, to the Sermon "evolved_into-meaning-words" On The Mount. Now here are some "kulnu smuni valsi" = "cultural- distinct types of happiness: meaning-words" "tcaci smuni valsi" = "customary-English Esperanto Greek meaning-words" (Modern) --------------------------------- _________________________________---------------- ________________ Fortunate Felicxa Eutuxhs, Eutuxismenos le lojbo se ciska - Your turn Pleased (Kontenta) Euxaristhmenos Nick Nicholas has translated Happy Gaja Xaroumenos the next paragraph of the ongoingJoyful Gxoja (can't Jim Carter science fiction story,think of one) but partly due to space, and Blissful (Sengxena) Makarios partly because of the other large(cf. Latin Beatus) translation here from Nick, we are holding that for next issue. The Esperanto has 'Fortunate' Instead, I'm going to put some because this makes the link challenges to the readership (in between cause of happiness and case all this text, and Ivan's the happiness explicit: Gxojas requests for tanru or lujvo, tiuj, kiuj... would sound like aren't enough. their joy was incidental to their I seriously want to see as manyseeing God. It would be even people as possible try one of theworse with Gajas tiuj, kiuj... following two Lojbanic exercises.which reads somewhat like "Those The first is merely an exercise who have seen God are running in creative word manipulation, around smiling". which any language lover can do. But the original Greek had (You can complicate the exercise Makarioi, and the Latin by using it as practice in lujvo-translation has Beati. making, but this is not obliga- Admittedly some semantics would tory.) The second is a set of have been influenced by the aphorism translation exercises Church's use of the term; but Oi that anyone can work on. Makarioi Nhsoi, the Isles of We would like feedback on theseBliss, the late-pagan-Greek exercises, whatever you choose toequivalent of heaven, predates do with them. Are they in- Christian theology (I think). teresting? Which did you try to What this implies to me is that do, how well did you do, and how Christ meant something along the do you feel about your level of lines of 'They will have no success compared to your worries, no disquiet', not 'they expectations? Do you want will run around smiling' (Happy) exercises like this to be a or 'they will run around regular feature of ju'i lobypli, hurrahing' (Joyful) or 'they will and which exercises did you like 106 say "ain't we lucky"' (Fortunate, First you wander through the Pleased). gismu list pulling out words Does la Lojban distinguish related to the concept. I didn't between these happinesses (it pull the following out in order, doesn't have to, and I've heard but about 15 minutes gave me all SapirWhorfish mumbles against of them. You can probably find such distinctions), and which more using your own lists. As would it have picked here? you will see, don't be picky - _________________________________let your mind play word associa- ________________ tion games. Bob: Yes and no. We can Some key source words (I'll use distinguish between any concepts,the published gismu list; some but no one has done so yet. The places of some of these are pro- "SapirWhorfish mumbles" you heardbably going to change, but not to are wrong - one of the areas significantly affect this where Lojban may exhibit S-W exercise - feel free to suggest effects is in the ability to makechanges, in fact): such distinctions, and the creativity that results from the Idea Place structure rafsi or free combination of ideas. In lujvo fact, I proposed a massive effortgleki x is happy about ygle gei like the following way back in pluka x pleases y puk pu'a the first issue of JL, under the se pluka x is pleased by y name 'complexing'. In a sense, selpu'a doing this is what made me salci x celebrates y sal interested in Loglan enough to xalbo x is levity/non-serious tackle the dictionary project about y - (which is how I got started). (Izdile x is amusing to y zil zdi love playing with words and their se zdile x is amused by y corresponding ideas, to see how selzdi they interact.) So let's do it. Let's see how These are 5 different basic many ways there are to be happy 'kinds' of happiness. They can (do happy?). I'll give some stand alone or modify each other: hints and guidelines, and see what our readers can come up with: salci gleki x is celebratingly-happy about y salgei gay/joyful se zdile gleki x is amusedly-happy about y selzdigei one kind of enjoy, but see below. Idea Place structure rafsi or lujvo gleki x is happy about y gle gei pluka x pleases y puk pu'a se pluka x is pleased by y selpu'a salci x celebrates y sal xalbo x is levity/non-serious about y - zdile x is amusing to y zil zdi se zdile x is amused by y selzdi 107 These are 5 different basic 'kinds' of happiness. They can stand alone or modify each other: salci gleki x is celebratingly-happy about y salgei gay/joyful se zdile gleki x is amusedly-happy about y selzdigei one kind of enjoy, but see below. But we needn't stop here. There are related words that are useful for specific kinds of happiness: bebna x is foolish in y beb cando x is idle/at rest/inactive cad cizra x is strange/bizarre to y in z ciz cunso x is random/chance cun cu'o dimna x is the fate/destiny/doom of y - se dimna x is doomed to y seldimna fenki x is crazy/insane in doing/being y fek jgira x has pride about y jgi kanro x is healthy ka'o kufra x is comfortable in environment y kuf lifri x experiences y lif fri lijda x is the religion of people y with tenets z lij jda se lijda x follows religion y with tenets z seljda mansa x is satisfied with y - panpi x is at peace pap pensi x thinks about y pen pei prije x is wise/sage about y by standard/observer z pij racli x is sane/rational - ranxi x is ironic in that y rax sanga x sings y to z sag siclu x makes whistling sound y with z sil stodi x is constant/invariant in y tod sto tarti x behaves/conducts self as y under conditions z tat tai tcaci x is the custom/habit of y under condition z cac tca tinbe x obeys/follows command y by z tib xamgu x is good for y by standard z xag xau zabna x is the ameliorative of y zan za'a All 24 of these can be applied as modifiers to "gleki", "selpu'a", "selzdi", "xalbo" and "salci", and in some cases each other. That gives over 120. Many will bring to mind a situation where they would be useful. Some, not all will suggest an English word equivalent (or possibly to Esperantists an Esperanto word, or to Nick, a Greek word.) All are valid tanru in Lojban. All more or less mean "happy". All can be made into lujvo. Anyone want to tackle the complete set systematically, giving us hundreds of words for the dictionary in one fell swoop? If you aren't that ambi- tious, try a few dozen, put together as you see fit (which may take a while) or a systematic subset (after doing this for a few minutes, you'll find you can't write them as fast as you can analyze them and put them together). I'll give several examples: bebna gleki x is foolishly-happy about y bebgei one kind of giddy 108 fenki gleki x is crazily/insanely happy about y fekygei another kind zabna lifri x Experiences! y zanfri enjoys (my preference for this English word in most contexts) siclu gleki x is whistlingly-happy about y (whistling z with w) silgei (think Snow White and the 7 Dwarves) panpi kufra x is peacefully-comfortable in environment y papkufra content panpi gleki x is peacefully-happy about y papygei serene se lijda gleki x is religiously-believing happy about y seljdagei beatific With the "happy" word first: gleki panpi x is happily-at peace (happy about y) glepanpi blissful geirpanpi Not enough? We have intensities: carmi x is intense in y cam cai milxe x is mild/gentle/unextreme in property y mli mleca x is less than y in property z by amount w mec me'a mutce x is toward the y extreme in property z mut mu'e traji x is superlative in property y taj rai zmadu x is more than y in property z by amount w zad zma mau carmi gleki x is intensely-happy about y camgei implies a particularly emphatic happiness mutce gleki x is very- happy about y mu'egle a little broader happiness than camgei, but still extreme gleki zmadu x is happy- more than y is (about z by amount w) glemau or happier geizma zmadu gleki x is more- happy about y (than z is by amount w) maugle or zmagei se gleki zmadu x is happy_making-more than y (than z is by amt w) selgeimau which can then be converted without lujvo making to: se selgeimau x is made- happy-more by y than by z by amt w a proper and fairly exact lujvo is selkemselgei mau but the following will probably be adopted selselgeimau because any other interpretation of "selsel-" is a nullity Finally, we can also define happiness in terms of what it is not, or what it lacks: to'e polar opposite (c.f. Esperanto mal- ?) to'e 109 no'e neutral scalar negation no'e badri x is sad/depressed about y dri claxu x lacks/is without y cax cau dunku x is anguished/distressed by y duk du'u fanza x annoys/irritates/bothers y by doing/being z faz se fanza x is annoyed by y doing/being z selfanza fengu x is angry at y for z feg fe'u junri x is serious about y jur pante x protests/objects/complains to y about z by doing w - raktu x troubles/disturbs y by z ra'u se raktu x is troubled by y doing z selra'u steba x feels frustration about y under conditions z seb xanka x is nervous/anxious about y - Examples: to'e badri x is polar-opposite of sad/depressed about y to'erdr i to'e pante x opposite-of-protests to y about z by doing w to'erpa nte compliments y ... no'e pante x doesn't-protest to y about z by doing no'erpante has nothing to complain about to y is a reasonable interpretation of this as a lujvo, but there may be others se raktu claxu x is troubled-lacking of y doing z selra'ucau a specific kind of bliss or serenity suggesting: x is blissfully unaware of y doing z I'll close by listing some others Jim Brown had in his old dictionary, (updated to Lojban standards). I don't always agree with Brown's tanru but they may give ideas (a version of his 'English equivalent' is in parentheses): gleki culno x is happy- full of y (x is joyful about y) geiclu gleki xendo x is happy- kind towards y (x hearty/warm-hearted toward y) glexe'o gleki rinka x is happy- causer of y (x cheers y up giving) gleri'a se rinka gleki x is causedly happy about y by cause z selgleri'a (x is cheered up/cheerful about y cheered by z) (which we can use other causals in:) se mukti gleki x is motivatedly-happy about y by motive z selglemu'i se krinu gleki x is justifiedly happy about y with reason z selgleki'u or even se nibli gleki x is logically-necessitated to be happy about y by logic z (?!) selglen i'i Most English words will map to more than one Lojban word, because there are so many Lojban words. Thus we can make finer distinctions in our words than English can! For those not familiar with lujvo-making rules, here's the easy version. Replace the final vowel of all but the last word with 'y', and write it as one word. Thus the 'easy' form of 110 'bebgei' is 'bebnygleki', and the two word versions are absolutely the same in meaning, place structure, etc. If you want to try to shorten them, the following is a short set of rules omitting a couple of special cases that you'll rarely run into. See the Synopsis for complete rules. (For those few people who have gotten the new issue of the rafsi list, these rules are included). Remember that the final rafsi must end in a vowel, incompatible consonant junctures between rafsi (voiced/unvoiced like "bp", same consonant like "bb", and both fricative "c, j, s, or z", and a few others - see the Synopsis or the back page of the Lojban-order gismu list) require a "y" 'hyphen' between the consonants. Also a CVV form requires 'r' as a hyphen in the first rafsi, unless immediately followed by a CCV affix (this to form the mandatory consonant cluster - use an 'n' if the following affix starts with 'r'). There are a few other rules, but if you get this far your first try without making any mistakes, I'll be more than ******* (Well - you find the word I want!!!) ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Our other exercise is in translation of aphorisms. This can be a game of almost any level of difficulty or skill required, so we will provide both Lojban and English data so that it can be max- imally used. What follows are three sets of sentences: - The first set of sentences consists of Lojban translations of some aphorisms and other 'pithy sayings', the product of various members of the Lojban conversation group that meets here in the Washington DC area. - The second set of sentences are the original English versions of each of the Lojban translations, not in the same order as the Lojban sentences. This set of aphorisms is graded in difficulty from 1 (easiest) to 4 (hardest), in terms of amount of Lojban skill needed to translate them into Lojban. - The third set of sentences are also English aphorisms, but these have no translations. They are 'exercises'. This set of aphorisms is graded in difficulty from 1 (easiest) to 4 (hardest) as is the second set. These are estimates, since the sentences haven't been translated. The translation section at the end of this issue has the complete set of matches between the first two sets of sentences, so that you can study them in comparison to each other. Feel free to comment on or criticize any of these translations, or try to do better yourself. Here's what you do with these sentences: - The simplest exercise is to attempt to understand the first set of aphorisms, matching them up with their corresponding members of the second set. - Slightly more difficult is to go the other way. Attempt to translate sentences in the second set into Lojban sufficiently that you can match them to the corresponding members of the first set. You can also mix the two directions, trying some in each direction, making sure you mark sentences off so that you don't repeat yourself. Note that the Set #1 translations may not be the best possible. 111 - You can attempt to fully translate the first set into English, seeing if you can figure out colloquial translations of the Lojban. You can compare your answer with the real quotation, which will help you judge your skill in reading Lojban, and our skill in communicating to you in Lojban. - Still braver, you can attempt to completely translate the second set of sentences into Lojban, and then compare your answer with the one that our group came up with. If you don't agree, you may still be correct - there is certainly more than one way to translate these types of sentences. If you think your version is as good or better, send it to us, and we may use yours when these are used as exercises in the Lojban textbook or samples in the first Lojban reader. - Finally, you can translate the third set of sentences into Lojban and send them to us. Include on a separate sheet the identifying number or complete English for each translation. The conversation group here will then attempt to back-translate your versions, which will help us learn the language. We will collectively respond to all submissions with comments and corrections of your attempts. The best translations will appear in future la lojbangirz. publications. We of course recommend working from easier aphorisms to harder ones, but work at whatever level you feel comfortable. - If you are studying together with at least one other Lojbanist, you can also do exactly what our group did in developing the first set. Cut individual English aphorisms into strips and put them into a box. Each person takes a slip and translates their sentence into Lojban. When all are done, say or write your results in turn, and have the other(s) try to back-translate into English - then compare with the original, and discuss the problems you experienced. We successfully did this with people of a variety of Lojban expertise at LogFest. You can do it too. Set #1 - Pre-translated Lojban Aphorisms Note: Two Lojban sentences below correspond to one single English in Set #2. Thus there are 20 Lojban sentences, and only 19 English ones in these two sets. A. mi pu ricfu .ije mi pu pindi .i la'ede'u cu xagmau B. le tordu temci morji cu traji se sinma sera'a le turni C. le nu clira ckaklama gi'e clira ckacliva cu rinka le ka kanro joi ricfu joi prije D. le ka terpa cu me lo pa drani se terpa E. le banli to'e jetnu cu zmadu le jetnu le ni se krici F. lo ka krici le cevni cu noroi mintu lo ka prami le cevni G. mi pagbu ro le se tcidu be mi H. lo cevni ka'enai galfi loi purci .iku'i lo circtuca ka'e go'i I. lo no'e cevni krici cu krici le nu ri cu snuti J. te'inai mi zmadu djica le nu zvati la Filydelfias 112 K. lo sidbo cu na fuzme le prenu poi krici ri L. le clira cipni cu cpacu le curnu M. na curmi le nu djuno roda N. pa nunfenso pe ca lo zantemci cu fanta so nunfenso O. fe le nu catra xaksu lo temci kei fa lo kamni nu penmi cu prane xarci P. ro le nu kusru cu se rinka le ka ruble Q. da poi renvi sepi'o loi balre baca'a mrobi'o sepi'o loi sodva vanju se pinxe R. lo kumte cu simlu lo xirma poi se plafinti lo kamni S. le verba poi terpa le manku ku'o ji le prenu poi terpa le se gusni cu bebna traji T. no da pe le turni cu dunli se sinma lo tordu ni morji Set #2 - Difficulty-Sorted English Originals for Set #1 1. (1) An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it. - Don Marquis 2. (1) The early bird gets the worm. 3. (1) I am a part of all that I have read. - John Kieran 4. (1) I've been rich and I've been poor; rich is better. - Sophie Tucker 5. (2) A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee. - Vogue magazine, July, 1958 6. (2) God cannot alter the past, but historians can. - Samuel Butler 7. (2) An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident. - Francis Thompson 8. (2) A stitch in time saves nine. - Benjamin Franklin 9. (2) To know all things in not permitted. - Horace 10. (2) All cruelty springs from weakness. - Seneca 11. (3) Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. - John Kenneth Galbraith 12. (3) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt 13. (3) On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia. - W. C. Fields 14. (3) Faith is never identical with piety. - Karl Barth 113 15. (3) Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. 16. (3) A big lie is more plausible than truth. - Ernest Hemingway 17. (3) To kill time, a committee meeting is the perfect weapon. - Laurence J. Peter 18. (4) Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? - Maurice Freehill 19. (4) He who lives by the sword shall perish by the champagne cocktail. - Saul Alinsky Set #3 - No-Translations Given: Aphorisms in Difficulty Order 1. (1) A page of history is worth a volume of logic. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 2. (1) All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions. - Leonardo da Vinci 3. (1) You can fool most of the people most of the time - P. T. Barnum 4. (1) Examine the contents, not the bottle. - The Talmud 5. (1) History is only a confused heap of facts. - Earl of Chesterfield 6. (1) I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. - Chinese proverb 7. (1) If it is not erotic, it is not interesting. - Fernando Arrabal 8. (1) Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. - Henry David Thoreau 9. (1) Native ability without education is like a tree without fruit. - Aristippus 10. (1) Not to decide is to decide. - Harvey Cox 11. (2) A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. - Joseph Stalin 12. (2) Art is not a thing; it is a way. - Elbert Hubbard 13. (2) Doubt is not a pleasant mental state but certainty is a ridiculous one. - Voltaire 14. (2) History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man. - Percy Bysshe Shelley 15. (2) If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. - George Orwell 114 16. (2) If you scoff at language study ... how, save in terms of language, will you scoff? - Mario Pei 17. (2) If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it. - Marcus Tullius Cicero 18. (2) In war there is no substitute for victory. - Douglas MacArthur 19. (2) My father gave me these hints on speech-making: "be sincere...be brief...be seated." - James Roosevelt 20. (2) Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. - Marie Curie 21. (2) No man is a failure who is enjoying life. - William Feather 22. (2) Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. - Edgar Allan Poe 23. (2) Seeing is deceiving. It's eating that's believing. - James Thurber 24. (2) Shake and shake / The catsup bottle, / None will come, / And then a lot'll. - Richard Armour 25. (2) Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. - Henri Bergson 26. (2) Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana 27. (2) Those who write clearly have readers; those who write obscurely have commentators. - Albert Camus 28. (2) The thoughtless are rarely wordless. 29. (2) These Macedonians are a rude and clownish people; they call a spade a spade. - Plutarch 30. (2) The heart has its reasons which reason does not understand. - Blaise Pascal 31. (2) There is nothing permanent except change. - Heraclitus 32. (2) To be a success in business, be daring, be first, be different. - Marchant 33. (2) We are tomorrow's past. - Mary Webb 34. (2) What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions. - Arnold Glasow 35. (2) Who shall guard the guardians themselves. - Juvenal 36. (2) You'll find in no park or city / A monument to a committee. - Victoria Pasternak 37. (2) A belief is not true because it is useful. - Henri Frederic Amiel 115 38. (2) A person gets from a symbol the meaning he puts into it. - The United States Supreme Court 39. (2) All the fun's in how you say a thing. - Robert Frost 40. (3) Be obscure clearly. - E. B. White 41. (3) I am free of all prejudices. I hate every one equally. - W. C. Fields 42. (3) Leadership is action, not position. - Donald H. McGannon 43. (3) Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. - George Bernard Shaw 44. (3) Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers. - Johann W. von Goethe 45. (3) Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - Lord Acton 46. (3) The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet. - Damon Runyon 47. (3) Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. - Lewis Carroll 48. (3) The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out. - Chinese Proverb 49. (3) Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - Abraham Lincoln 50. (3) The day will come when everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. - Andy Warhol 51. (3) We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming. - Wernher von Braun 52. (3) What is honored in a country will be cultivated there. - Plato 53. (3) When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less. - Lewis Carroll 54. (3) When an idea is wanting a word can always be found to take its place. - Johann W. von Goethe 55. (4) 'Tain't what a man don't know that hurts him; it's what he knows that just ain't so! - Frank McKinney Hubbard 56. (4) A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 57. (4) Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight? - Al Boliska 116 58. (4) For every person wishing to teach there are thirty not wanting to be taught. - W. C. Sellar and R. Y. Yeatman 59. (4) It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards. - Lewis Carroll 60. (4) Production is not the application of tools to material, but logic to work. - Peter Drucker 61. (4) The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion. - James Russell Lowell 62. (4) The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because it isn't here. - Finley Peter Dunne 63. (4) The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. - Thomas Jefferson 64. (4) When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble. - Buddha ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ For our untranslated Lojban text this issue, I'll share the floor with Ivan Derzhanski, who was studying in Boston when he wrote the following letter. My answer follows. Ivan wrote his text and understood mine with only level 1 materials. There ARE grammatical errors in Ivan's letter, but I was able to figure out most of what was intended, and my response corrects those errors. coi lojbab. do'u ni'o di'e pamoi xatra ci'a mi bau la Lojban. .i .oinai.o'u mi cpacu le'i pelji ni'o mi sidju ledo nu zbasu le reno valsi .i ku'i baze'inai la'edi'u ne ki'u ca nu mutce cutyzu'e ni'o .a'ocai do pu'i jimpe se mi ciska .i u'u na mi mutce djuno Lojban. .ije lerci .ije mi tatpi .i .au.a'u mi cpacu zoi <draft textbook lessons> zoi co'omi'e .iVAN. ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ .ue do xamgu troci lenu cusku bau la Lojban. .i la nik. ji'a puzi cpacu le selprina du'i xaunro'i (xamgytroci ta'unai) .i mi jimpe ledo selsku .iku'i do milxe srera .ijeseku'ibo mi na birti le smuni be ledo vomoi jufra noi pilno le pluja ke temci cmavo .iku'i mi smadi .i lo lojbo cmene cu nitcu lo cmene valsi tcita .iseni'ibo le do xamoi jufra cu se srera .ije do pu djica <<lu .i .u'u na[ku] mi mutce djuno la Lojban. li'u>> .i xu do djica lenu mi ca benji le zasni tadycku kei ji lenu mi denpa ledo benji le krasi bangu selfanva terfanva .i mi djica lenu do cmima binxo le lojbo ke skami xe mrilu po'u la lojban. list. 117 .ije ko benji le notci poi vasru ledo skami judri fo zoi <<.uniks. lojban-list-request@snark.uu.net .uniks.>> .i ko cpedu bau la gliban .uu ki'u la erik. na tadni la lojban .i mi djica lenu do mrilu lo fukpi be le do xatra joi le mi se spuda xatra le lojbo ke skami girzu po'u zoi <<.uniks. lojban- list@snark.thyrsus.com .uniks.>> .i .u'u mi puza srera .ije ledo pamoi se mrilu cu te mrilu zoi <<.uniks. lojban-list-request@snark.thyrsus.com .uniks.>> .i ko ranji lenu troci le lojbo cusku .i co'omi'e lojbab. [Note that the network address is no longer correct. See page 2 of this issue for the new address.] Those letters were written in April. In July, Ivan, now back in Bulgaria, sent me a postcard and the following letter. The letter is virtually perfect, having only three minor errors that hardly affect understanding. 1) Ivan had a "zo" quote on the name, which I've replaced with lo'u/le'u quotes since there is more than one word. 2) Lojbanized names should end in a consonant, but inside 'ungrammatical Lojban text' quotes, this does not matter. 3) Ivan's original: "pa le tercfi lemi natmi beme'e zo ..." meant that his nation, and not the author, had the indicated name. 118 A portion of the text is embedded English. Ivan asks for help in expressing some concepts, which will be obvious in the text, even if you can't read the Lojban. Please suggest tanru or lujvo for any or all of them. If you are not confident at lujvo-making from a tanru, but feel that the concept should be expressed in a single word, put the Lojban words together separated by a hyphen. I encourage that proposed lujvo come with a plausible place structure. I'll collect the suggestions and send them to Ivan. I note in passing that "LogFest" has the impermissible medial 'gf' which makes it a bad Lojbanized name. Maybe it is time we switch the name to Lojban since people are starting to write about it in Lojban. What do people think of "la jbosalci"? de'e xatra tu'i la pijyta'u de'i li pa pi'e ze pi'e sopa coi lojbab. ni'o mi rinsa do tebe'i lemi tcadu no'u le la bulgariax. ralta'u .i .oiru'e mutce lenku .i le djacu carvi cu na sisti ni'o mi troci ke lojbo fanva lo lisri be ci'a pa le tercfi pe lemi natmi zi'e peme'e lo'u XRISto. SMIRnenski. le'u be'o .iku'i pi su'o loi selsku cu dukse nandu mi .i mi benji lo pagbu be ri do .i .e'o ko stidi le lojbo velsku .i zoi. problem. (1) dedicate (a story) to (sbd.) (2) clench one's fist; fist (n.) (3) bribe; ransom (4) betray (5) tear, rend (cloth); rag (n, (6) bend, lean over (sbd.) (7) threat, menace (n.) (8) rush, dash (9) shrill, piercing (sound) .problem. ni'o.a'o la LogFest. pe le cabnanca pu snada co'omi'e .iVAN. ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Nick Nicholas, our Australian/Greek/Esperantist Lojban star is interested in exploring Lojban stylistics. Although he has worked on learning Lojban only a few months, he has a command of the language about as good as anyone has. Perhaps too good - his writings may be beyond the capability of most readers' following. This is sad because the stylistic variation in the Lojban that he was trying to achieve is quite obvious. Equally important, it is quite interesting. I urge everyone willing to spend a bit of time to try various portions of the text (some are more difficult than others). Feel free to liberally cheat and look back at the translation section, or perhaps just read the text with translation there. Skip around and sample the five sections, and see if you too can perceive the stylistic variation in the Lojban. 119 A warning with a suggestion - this is not an easy text; indeed, it goes far beyond the draft textbook lessons in use of the grammar. Do not get too hung up if you cannot figure out a word (Nick even uses a couple that are not in the published cmavo list, but are noted in the JL14 change pages, or in the discussion above on sumti-raising. I've tried to identify these and work around this problem, but may have missed something.) Try to get the gist of what is being said, and the words may become clear from context. And don't get hung up on one sentence too long - move on to the next one. The following is translated from modern Greek. Freddy Germanos, (1934- ) is a newspaper columnist, and this is taken from a book collection of his columns for the Mesimvrin'i (Midday) pa- per, printed in 1967 by Galaxias publishers. The title of the book is 'To Dhis Examartein' ('Sinning Twice' - alluding to the ancient Greek saying, "Sinning twice is not [a characteristic] of a wise man". The parody is on pp. 12-13 of the 7th edition, dated March 1974, by Grigoris Publishers, 73 Solonos St., Athens. There is no copyright notice on the book. lonu reroi pacnunzu'e cu na se ckaji lo prije ni'oni'oni'oni'o la fredis. germaNOS. pu finti .i la kir. pu te pinxe pamo'o .i memi'a poi te prosa ni'oni'oni'o nuzba ni'oni'o le briju cu so'iroi se klama so'olemi pendo poi co'a se jibri zu'i po mi gi'e preti cpedu le tarmi po'e lo nuzba nu cusku ni'o .i'a loi nuzba ne semau roda vajrai ci'elo karni nu cupra .iku'i cinri fa lo karni poi mu'i lenu ke'a pilno ku cusku le go'i .i rolo karni cu ckaji leri tadji be le nuzba nu cusku .i la'edi'u nibli lenu ra se tcidu co frili gi'a se tcidu naku ni'o mupli lo nuzba poi mutce sampu .i lo nixli be li mu ca lepu'u kelci levo'a bolci cu farlu lo skuro poi karbi'o se kakpa lei gunka pole ta'utru .i tarmi le ve cusku be le nuzba bei pi'o la karni be de'i roboi lo djedi be'oku (to la roldei toi) .i <<lu di'o lo paboi te kruca be le klaji poi se cmene la .adriaNOS. vauku'o bei le klaji poi se cmene la paleologos. ku'obe'oku ko'a goi paboi lo nixli be muboi lo nanca be'oku ge'u pu se xrani ca lepu'u ko'a cu kelci da noi ke'a se tarmi lo bolci vauku'ovaukeivau .i le nu xrani vaukei cu diklo fe'eba'o va paboi le zdani be lai paleologon. benizelon. be'oku noi la kamBUroglus. pu skicu ke'a ta'i lo se ciska ku tai loka lanli vaukeivauku'ovau .i la'edi'e cu cizra zo'e lenu fasnu vaukei ne sekai leka na xlura vaukeige'uvau .i paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku pu binxo le 120 speni be paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku poi na du vo'a ku'o soivo'avo'e se'u be'oku vi le zdani be lai varvatis. be'oku noi jibni le zdani be lai paleologon. benizelon. be'okuvauku'ovau .i le nixli ki na se ckape vau li'u>> .i ke'unai vecu'u la akROpolis. le nuzba cu ka'e ckaji loka zmadu cinri bo cfipu .i <<lu pu zgana ne'i lo skuro lo se xrani. goi ko'a poi mebrai nixli gi'e jarco lo frili se viska jalge be lonu vlile .i ri'anai lenu le zekri lifri po'u ko'a na pujaca skicu fi lei pulji kei ca cipra fa ri lejei na'e snuti (to pupu jinvi to'ebori toi) gi'e cinse zekri .i lo kamni poi se cmima le mi karni zbasu caca'a cipra fi le tcini mu'i lenu djica co danfu fo re preti ra'u po'u di'e .i pamai xu le nixli pu cinse vlile lifri .i remai fau lenu ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri kei ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri ki'u ma li'u>> .i li'a vecu'u la cermurse [see the new gismu added this issue] sesau se basna fa loi drata tcila .i <<lu nixli .i ko'a pe leni slabu .i ri du mu nanca .i xrani ca le purlamdei .i farlu lo skuro po la ta'utru ca lenu kelci le bolci .i ko'a ze'iba tavla palemi karnypra .i ko'a fatci xusra .i <<lu mi farlu le skuro .i ni'ibo mi na citka ca re djedi .i besna se cfipu .i lemi mamta cu selfu seljibri .i lemi patfu cu na'e dinycpa .i ni'ibo ri roroi pantydzu li'u>> li'u>> 121 .ice ka'e zgana cusku fo la natmi nu'arki'a <<lu lenu xrani cu se rinka lonu pimo'ale skuro cu te sabji lo gacri .i ni'inai lenu na catni se xusra cu cusku lenu fuzme fa relo gunka pe le ta'utru ge'u zi'e noi ze'u .o'onai kaurposysi'orpre .i lei pulji cu cipra lejei zasti fa loi flana'etinbe gripre noi pu zukte lo drata nu jecyselxrazei li'u>> .i romai la deimid. cfari le ni'onrai tarmi be loi nuzba .i <<lu se tirna fa lo voksa .i se viska fa lo xance poi se desku tai loka ti'e pacna zi'epoi cpedu lenu sidju .ibabo smaji .i ?ma pu fasnu .i mi ciksi .i lo nixli pu sakli mo'ine'i lo skuro .ibazabo le nixli cu bacru <<lu mi farlu ri'a lenu la paf. na di'i tcidu la deimid. li'u>> li'u>> Nick asked for a return of "lei lojbo", Nora's comic strip. In honor of Nick's efforts, and his Esperantist background, enjoy the following page. Esperanto text was aided by David Twery. 122 lei lojbo by Nora LeChevalier 123 Translations of le lojbo se ciska lo zekri fi'e la bab. tcySEL. A crime, created by Bob Chassell Probably just "zekri", an observative, would be better. Stand-alone sumti in Lojban suggest an answer to a "ma" question. With the "fi'e" author label, "me la'ezo zekri ..." might be still better. .i mi cadzu pagre le vorme le kumfa I walkingly pass through the door into the room. We need a word for doorway, probably as a place of "vorme". I doubt that the door itself was passed through. Bob several times uses "lo" and "le" in ways I can't quite figure out. As a reader, whenever I see "le" attached to a new description, I expect to see some restrictive relative clause that tells which one "the" door is, and which one "the" room is. When I don't, as here, I get narrative suspense, which may be the intent. But one normally expects the suspense will resolve. I have made the English translate in a literal fashion that suggests what Bob's descriptor choices would be interpreted as. .i lo xadni pe le nanmu cu vreta lo loldi A body of the man reclines upon a floor. "pe" is an unnaturally loose 'possessive' for this relation. Bob could have used "be" since the man could be the x2 of "xadni". Normally one thinks of a body as inalienably associated with a particular person, so "po'e" would seem more natural than "pe". .i mi viska le flecu be loi ciblu bei fo le xadni I see the current of Blood flowing from the body. Bob C.'s Note: I suggest that "flecu" be given the same form as "fall": "x1 flows to x2 ..." instead of the current: flecu fec fle flow current of/in..flowing to..from..'flush' Bob L. responds: That would be a different, and narrower meaning of "flow". This is the 'noun' version of "flow", which can include oceanic currents, etc. .i mi sisku loi sinxa be le zekri I seek Signs/Symbols of the described-as-a (alleged) crime. .i mi viska loi kevna pe loi danti ge'u be lo sefta be lo jubme I see Holes associated with Bullets in a surface of a table. Presumably the bullets made only one hole each, so "lo kevna" and "lo danti" might be better than "loi". "lo" can apply to plural things, as long as the statement is true of each sepa- 124 rate item. can apply to plural things, as long as the statement is true of each separate item. .ije mi viska lo nu loi cukta pu farlu lo kajna lo jubme e lo loldi And I see an event that Books fell from a shelf to a table and a floor. There is no inference permitted that this "lo loldi" is the same floor as the one that the body was on. This is one problem with "lo", which is never restricted unless explicitly so. .ije mi viska lo nu lo canko cu kalri And I see an event that a window is open. 125 .i mi catlu lo plita ke bartu drudi noi lo'e prenu cadzu I look at a flat , exterior roof which a typical person walks (on it). .i mi cusku fi la tam. noi pulji ku'o fe lu pe'i le zekri prenu I say to Tom, who-incidentally polices, " I think [I opine] the crime person pu cpare le plita ke bartu drudi le canko pe le kumfa li'u climbed over the flat , exterior-roof to the window of the room. " .i la tam. cusku lu ia. ie. Tom says " Yes (belief), I agree. .i ko catlu le kevna be le bitmu be'o poi ke'a trixe le pixra Look at the cavity in he wall which it is behind the picture. .i le kevna cu vasru lo tanxe .ije ri kunti zo'e li'u The cavity contains a box and The last referent is empty of something unspecified." .i la tam. cusku lu ju'e le tanxe pu vasru loi rupnu li'u Tom says, " I conclude that the box contained [full of] Money. " The "full of" is not implied in the Lojban. Perhaps "vasru culno" would do so. .i mi catlu le vorme pe le tanxe pe le bitmu I look at the door of the box in [associated with] the wall. Again, "vorme be le tanxe" seems better. ('Use the place structures, Luke') .i mi cusku lu ba'a le stela cu porpi I say " I expect the lock is broken. .i .ua .ue mi facki lo za'i ge lo vorme gi lo stela na porpi li'u (Discovery! Surprise!) I discover that the state of both a door and a lock is not broken." .i mi cusku fi la tam. fe lu le minra pu farlu lo bitmu lo loldi gi'e pu porpi li'u I say to Tom, " The mirror fell from a wall to a floor and broke. " .i la tam. cusku lu pe'i le morsi nanmu pu lacpu le minra lo loldi lo bitmu Tom says " I think [I opine] the dead man pulled the mirror to a floor from a wall. 126 .i se'o mi'o catlu lo sinxa da poi ke'a vajni lo nu sisku li'u I have a hunch you and I are looking at a sign of something that [it] is important for an event of seeking." ("se'o" is listed in the JL14 changes.) .i la tam. cusku lu ra'u ju'e lo prenu poi ke'a pu sazri le stela Tom said, " Most important, I conclude the person who (he/she) operated the lock lo za'i kalri ku'o djuno fi lo tadji be lo pu'u kalri sazri with goal of a state-of-being open knows about a method of a process of open operating le tanxe vorme li'u the box door. " I made some minor changes to Bob's original of this and the line so it would fit the place structure of "djuno" described in the sumti-raising article above. .i mi cusku lu ganai tu'a le zekri prenu goi ko'a ge kalri rinka le stela tanxe I said " If (in doing something) the thief (x1) both open caused the lock box ginai spofu rinka tu'a ri and did not broken causes it (the lock box) (to be something; i.e., broken). gi ko'a cu djuno fi lo pu'u kalri sazri le tanxe vorme then he knows about a process of open operating the box door. This is an excellent example of both forethought logical connectives (which Bob figured out how to properly do even though that textbook lesson has not yet been written), and of the necessity for sumti-raising (I added the "tu'a"s). Without marking the sumti-raising, it is especially easy to see that "spofu rinka ri" does not translate properly: "ri", the lock box is the x2 place of "rinka", an event caused. .i .ua ru'a ko'a catlu le se minra be le nu kalri sazri le stela (discovery!) I postulate x1 looked at the reflected of the event of open operating the lock tanxe vorme sepi'o lo darno ke catlu cabra li'u box door using tool a far type-of looking-at apparatus [telescope]." ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Following is the translation of John Cowan's story: pamoi xamrei ra'a lo verba 127 first funny-question associated-with a child ni'o la paf. cusku <<lu pau mazo'o crino gi'e dandu le bitmu gi'e siclu li'u>> (New subject) Dad says "What (funny!) is-green and hangs-on the wall and whistles?" .i la ver. cusku <<lu .uanai mi na djuno li'u>> Kid says "(Confusion!) I do-not know". .i la paf. cusku <<lu .ui lo me la clupe'as. xarengus. finpe li'u>> Dad says "(Happiness!) A Clupeas-harengus type-of fish [a herring]". .i la ver. cusku <<lu .ia ri goi ko'a na crino li'u>> Kid says "(Belief!) That-last, or it1, is-not green". .i la paf. cusku <<lu fu'i le nu ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba crino li'u>> Dad says "(Easy!) The event-of you (Imperative!) acting is-the- cause-of the event-of it1 will-be green". .i la ver. cusku <<lu .iasai ko'a ba'e na dandu le bitmu li'u>> Kid says "(Belief-moderate!) It1 does-not hang-on the wall". .i la paf. cusku <<lu fu'isai le nu ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba dandu li'u>> Dad says "(Easy-moderate!) The event-of you (Imperative!) acting is-the-cause-of the event-of it1 will hang". .i la ver. cusku <<lu .iacai ko'a ba'e ba'e na siclu li'u>> Kid says "(Belief-intense!) It1 does-not whistle". .i la paf. cusku <<lu fu'icai mi pu cusku lo jitfa li'u>> Dad says "(Easy-intense!) I (past) express a false-thing." ________________________________________________________ Matches between Set #2 and Set #1 Aphorisms 1. (1) An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it. - Don Marquis K. lo sidbo cu na fuzme le prenu poi krici ri 2. (1) The early bird gets the worm. L. le clira cipni cu cpacu le curnu 3. (1) I am a part of all that I have read. - John Kieran G. mi pagbu ro le se tcidu be mi 4. (1) I've been rich and I've been poor; rich is better. - Sophie Tucker A. mi pu ricfu .ije mi pu pindi .i la'ede'u cu xagmau 5. (2) A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee. - Vogue magazine, July, 1958 R. lo kumte cu simlu lo xirma poi se plafinti lo kamni 6. (2) God cannot alter the past, but historians can. - Samuel Butler H. lo cevni ka'enai galfi loi purci .iku'i lo circtuca ka'e go'i 7. (2) An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident. - Francis Thompson I. lo no'e cevni krici cu krici le nu ri cu snuti 8. (2) A stitch in time saves nine. N. pa nunfenso pe ca lo zantemci cu fanta so nunfenso 128 9. (2) To know all things in not permitted. - Horace M. na curmi le nu djuno roda 10. (2) All cruelty springs from weakness. - Seneca P. ro le nu kusru cu se rinka le ka ruble 11. (3) Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. - John Kenneth Galbraith B. le tordu temci morji cu traji se sinma sera'a le turni or T. no da pe le turni cu dunli se sinma lo tordu ni morji 12. (3) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt D. le ka terpa cu me lo pa drani se terpa 13. (3) On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia. - W. C. Fields J. te'inai mi zmadu djica le nu zvati la Filydelfias 14. (3) Faith is never identical with piety. - Karl Barth F. lo ka krici le cevni cu noroi mintu lo ka prami le cevni 15. (3) Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. C. le nu clira ckaklama gi'e clira ckacliva cu rinka le ka kanro joi ricfu joi prije 16. (3) A big lie is more plausible than truth. - Ernest Hemingway E. le banli to'e jetnu cu zmadu le jetnu le ni se krici 17. (3) To kill time, a committee meeting is the perfect weapon. - Laurence J. Peter O. fe le nu catra xaksu lo temci kei fa lo kamni nu penmi cu prane xarci 18. (4) Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? - Maurice Freehill S. le verba poi terpa le manku ku'o ji le prenu poi terpa le se gusni cu bebna traji 19. (4) He who lives by the sword shall perish by the champagne cocktail. - Saul Alinsky Q. da poi renvi sepi'o loi balre baca'a mrobi'o sepi'o loi sodva vanju se pinxe ___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ Nick's translation of a Greek newspaper lonu reroi pacnunzu'e cu na se ckaji lo prije ni'oni'oni'oni'o la fredis. germaNOS. pu finti .i la kir. pu te pinxe pamo'o .i memi'a poi te prosa ni'oni'oni'o nuzba ni'oni'o [Title] Events of twice sinning [evil-events-of-acting] are not characteristic of the wise ones. [Author] Freddy Germanos created. [Section] Kir is Drunk From, Section I. We Who Write Prose. 129 [Article] News 130 le briju cu so'iroi se klama so'olemi pendo poi co'a se jibri zu'i po mi gi'e preti cpedu le tarmi po'e lo nuzba nu cusku The office is oftentimes come-to-by several of my friends who initially are be-jobbed by that typical of us and who questioningly-request the form which is inalienable to news expressings. To the office often come friends who are just getting started in our profession, and who ask me how to write news. ni'o .i'a loi nuzba ne semau roda vajrai ci'elo karni nu cupra .iku'i cinri fa lo karni poi mu'i lenu ke'a pilno ku cusku le go'i .i rolo karni cu ckaji leri tadji be le nuzba nu cusku .i la'edi'u nibli lenu ra se tcidu co frili gi'a se tcidu naku (Acceptance) News, more than all-other-somethings is superlatively- important in-system journal-producing. However, interesting is the journal which, motivated by it using, (something) expresses News [the x1 of the previous bridi]. Each journal is characterized by its method of news-expressing. This [that they are so characterized] necessitates that it [uncertain - could be the news- expressing, the method, each journal] is a read-thing of-type easy, or is a read-thing not-so. News is of course the Alpha and Omega of journalism [Greek: public- writing]. But what's important is which paper you write it for. Each paper has its own style of writing news. This results in them being read more easily - or not at all. Bob: "News, more than all-things, is superlatively-important." - This is highly redundant. There are alternate phrasings using the places of "traji", but the minimal change is "loi nuzba ne semau da'ada vajni" = "News, more than all-other- things, is important." I modified one phrase, where Nick used "lo karni poi jaipi'o cusku le go'i", since the usage is not on anyone's cmavo list, and was so vague, I had trouble figuring it out WITH knowledge and the English. "jaipi'o" is the new tagged-sumti-place converter/extractor (the equivalent of a SE conversion) intended to help clarify sumti-raising. Since Nick's version elliptically omitted the "ke'a", you have to guess where it was supposed to go. I made the following transformations, which are the obvious deductions and equivalences: "lo karni poi <jaipi'o cusku le go'i>" "lo karni poi <ke'a jaipi'o cusku le go'i>" (inserting "ke'a" at the beginning) "lo karni poi <pi'o ke'a cusku le go'i>" (The "jaipi'o" means that "ke'a" is the "pi'o"-tagged sumti of the selbri (which is "cusku") "The journal which used by it [something] expresses the x1 of the previous sentence (News)". This can possibly be interpreted to mean the colloquial English, but has more the sense of "which paper uses your writing". Clearly the emphasis in this article is on the what the writer writes and why, and the motivational implication ("mu'i") of "who you write it for" is lost. Even if Nick's 131 original means what he wanted, the "jaipi'o" is far more opaque than the equivalent "pi'o ke'a". ni'o mupli lo nuzba poi mutce sampu .i lo nixli be li mu ca lepu'u kelci levo'a bolci cu farlu lo skuro poi karbi'o se kakpa lei gunka pole ta'utru Example of a news item which is much simple. A girl of age #5, simultaneous with the process of playing with x1's [her] ball, falls to a groove which open-becomingly is-dug-by workers owned by the city-government. Let's examine a very simple news item. A girl, aged 5, while playing with her ball, falls into a trench opened by a Municipal crew. The age place on "nixli" seems wrongly-expressed. I think more correct is "lo nixli be lo nanca mumoi", optionally omitting the "nanca". 132 [There follow five different reports, one upper-class in archaic prose concentrating on the famous socialites living next door to the trench, one sensationalist speculating on rape, one communist calling for a class struggle, one anti-communist hinting at Red sabotage, and Germanos' own paper claiming she fell in because her father did not buy said paper.] .i tarmi le ve cusku be le nuzba bei pi'o la karni be de'i roboi lo djedi be'oku (to la roldei toi) Form of the medium of expression of the news, used by the-one- called Journal Associated with Date Each-Day (The Each-day). [Here's] how you'd write the news in the Daily. [Bob: I changed Nick's journal title to match the style of the newspaper. Nick had originally used the parenthetical name] {Very archaic Greek follows. I've emulated it by expanding all tanru, and lots of terminators.} .i <<lu di'o lo paboi te kruca be le klaji poi se cmene la .adriaNOS. vauku'o bei le klaji poi se cmene la paleologos. ku'obe'oku ko'a goi paboi lo nixli be muboi lo nanca be'oku ge'u pu se xrani ca lepu'u ko'a cu kelci da noi ke'a se tarmi lo bolci vauku'ovaukeivau "At the locus of the single crossing-point of the street which is named 'Adrianos' with the street which is named 'Paleologos', it1, defined as one girl of age 5 years was-injured, simultaneous with the process of it1 playing with something, which it has form of a ball. "At the intersection of Adrian and Palaeologus streets a five year old maiden was injured while she did ludificate with her sphere. .i le nu xrani vaukei cu diklo fe'eba'o va paboi le zdani be lai paleologon. benizelon. be'oku noi la kamBUroglus. pu skicu ke'a ta'i lo se ciska ku tai loka lanli vaukeivauku'ovau The event of injury is local to beyond [something] near one of the nests of the mass called Paleologon-Benizelon, which [house] Kamburoglus described it in form inscribed, in manner analytical. The accident occurred directly opposite the domicile of the Palaeologus-Benizelos family, about which [the house] Kambouroglou has written analytically. .i la'edi'e cu cizra zo'e lenu fasnu vaukei ne sekai leka na xlura vaukeige'uvau That referred by the following utterance is bizarre to unspecified one(s) in occurrence characterized-by not-influencer-ness. By a most strange coincidence, 133 .i paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku pu binxo le speni be paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku poi na du vo'a ku'o soivo'avo'e se'u be'oku vi le zdani be lai varvatis. be'oku noi jibni le zdani be lai paleologon. benizelon. be'okuvauku'ovau One of the two parents of Kamburoglus became the spouse of one of the two parents of Kamburoglus which was not = x1 [the first 'one of the two parents of Kamburoglus'], and x2 to x1 [or "vice versa"; the latter became the spouse of the former, too] at the nest of the mass called Varvatis which is near the nest of the mass called Paleologon-Benizelon The parents of Kambouroglou were bewedded in the Varvatis domicile, which is next to the P-B domicile. 134 .i le nixli ki na se ckape vau li'u>> The girl is presently not imperiled." The maiden is out of danger." .i ke'unai vecu'u la akROpolis. le nuzba cu ka'e ckaji loka zmadu cinri bo cfipu Continuing, in medium the Acropolis, the news can be characterized by more interestingly-confusing. On the other hand, in the Acropolis the news item could take on a more enigmatic character. {Note very dreadful tanru in the following.} .i <<lu pu zgana ne'i lo skuro lo se xrani. goi ko'a poi mebrai nixli gi'e jarco lo frili se viska jalge be lonu vlile "Observed, inside a groove, an injured, hereinafter it1, who is beautiful-mostly girlish, and displays easily-seen results of events of violence. "There has been found wounded, in a ditch, a most beautiful maiden bearing obvious signs of abuse. .i ri'anai lenu le zekri lifri po'u ko'a na pujaca skicu fi lei pulji kei ca cipra fa ri lejei na'e snuti (to pupu jinvi to'ebori toi) gi'e cinse zekri Despite the-event the crime-experiencer who is it1 not before-or- now describes to the police, simultaneously testing by them [the police] the truth value of other-than-accidental (had earlier opined opposite-of-this [accidental]) and sexual-crime. Although the victim has not yet made her statement, the police is investigating whether this was no accident, as had been thought initially, but a crime of a sexual nature. .i lo kamni poi se cmima le mi karni zbasu caca'a cipra fi le tcini mu'i lenu djica co danfu fo re preti ra'u po'u di'e A committee which is bemembered by our journal-makers is presently testing among the situation motivated by the event of desiring of type answers to two questions, chiefly, which follow. A team of our editors is already investigating the matter to answer two main questions. .i pamai xu le nixli pu cinse vlile lifri First, Is it true that the girl was a sexually-violent-experiencer? a) was the maiden raped? 135 .i remai fau lenu ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri kei ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri ki'u ma li'u>> Second, in the event of it1 [the girl} other-than sexually-violent- experiences, it1 other-than sexually-violent-experiences justified by what?" b) if the maiden was not raped, why was she not raped?" 136 .i li'a vecu'u la cermurse sesau se basna fa loi drata tcila Clearly, in media-of-expression the-one called morning-twilight, necessarily, are-emphasized Other Details. Of course in the Dawn other points must be emphasized. {Very folksy/dialectical Greek follows} .i <<lu nixli .i ko'a pe leni slabu .i ri du mu nanca .i xrani ca le purlamdei .i farlu lo skuro po la ta'utru ca lenu kelci le bolci "Girl. It1 [not defined, but obvious. This fits the style.] associated with age. Age = 5 year-intervals. Injury simultaneous with the past-adjacent-day [yesterday]. Faller to a groove owned by the-one(s)-named City-Government, simultaneous with the playing with the ball. "A li'l girl, 5 yr old, got hurt yesterday, falling, while she was playin' with her ball, into a City ditch. .i ko'a ze'iba tavla palemi karnypra .i ko'a fatci xusra It1 after-the-momently talks to one of our journal-producers. It1 factually asserts. Talking later to one of our editors, she put things straight. There is current debate going on that may change the interpretation of "ze'iba". I left it unchanged on the basis of the published cmavo list. Whatever is eventually decided will be reflected in the in-progress paper on interpreting tenses, and in updates to the cmavo list. .i <<lu mi farlu le skuro .i ni'ibo mi na citka ca re djedi .i besna se cfipu "I fall to the groove. Logically-necessary because I not eat during 2 days. Brainily-confused-by. 'I fell in that ditch cause I hadn't eaten for two days. I bin dizzy. .i lemi mamta cu selfu seljibri .i lemi patfu cu na'e dinycpa .i ni'ibo ri roroi pantydzu li'u>> li'u>> My mother is servant bejobbed. My father other-than money-gets. Logically-necessary because he always [Nick had a complex tense here that wasn't quite right, added nothing, and seemed like more than a 5-year-old's mouthful] protest-walks.'" My momma works as a servant. My poppa can't get a day's wages cause he's always on protest marches.'" .ice ka'e zgana cusku fo la natmi nu'arki'a 137 And next (not in any order) can observing-express in-medium the National News-Crier. While in the National Herald it could be noted that: <<lu lenu xrani cu se rinka lonu pimo'ale skuro cu te sabji lo gacri The event of injuring is caused by an event of too-little-of the groove being supplied with a cover. "The accident is due to the incomplete covering of the ditch. 138 .i ni'inai lenu na catni se xusra cu cusku lenu fuzme fa relo gunka pe le ta'utru ge'u zi'e noi ze'u .o'onai kaurposysi'orpre Logically despite [Note how Nick has both political extremes prone to invoking "Logic" in attacking each other. Very cute, Nick!] the event of it-being-false that [something] is-authority-asserted, [something] expresses the-event-of Responsible are two workers associated with the city-government and incidentally, for-a-long- time (Anger!) common-owner-idea-persons. Although there has been no formal announcement, it is said that those responsible are two City workers, who are longtime communists. Nick had omitted the "zi'e", which made the second relative clause apply to "le nu fuzme". Multiple relative clauses and other sumti modifiers attached with selma'o GOI and NOI is one place that the language can get clumsy, and you can easily make errors. So I recommend using "zi'e" to join such multiple modifiers. Nick's lujvo for "communists" is not the best I've seen. JCB used "ownerly-common-believer". I think this is close, but backwards - this is best shown by using the inverted form of the tanru: it should be "ownership of type common", and not "common things of type owner". I prefer the similar "common- owner-believe" or better-by-massifying: "community-owner-be- lieve". However from the standpoint of the conservatives who wrote this article, perhaps "worker-own-believer" or "public- owner-believer" might convey some of the apparent distaste for the 'lower-class' orientation. (Anyone want to work on lujvo for a variety of political and social credos? What is the linguistic difference between "Democrats" and "Republicans"? I also think "mabla" (or "mal-", I'm sure the newspaper would use it enough to lujvo-ize it) on the front of whatever the word for "communists" would be better than the attitudinal, which seems rather to fit the style of the sensationalist tabloid. (Incidentally, I think all quoted text from supposedly 'real people' would be richer in attitudinals in all versions of the story. We use a lot of attitudinals in conversation here. This would heighten the distinction between the repertorial voice and the voice of the people being interviewed.) .i lei pulji cu cipra lejei zasti fa loi flana'etinbe gripre noi pu zukte lo drata nu jecyselxrazei li'u>> Police are testing the truth of existence of Law-non-obeying Group- People [massed] who acted at other events of state-injured-crime." The police is investigating whether this is an illegal network, which has acted out other acts of sabotage in the past." Nick should consider variations and compounds of "sisku" ("seek") or fakro'i ("discover-try") or "lanli" ("analyze") "cliro'i" ("learn-try") for "investigate", which he has translated as being the same as "test" in all versions of the story. I liked his 'conservative' translation of "sabotage" 139 as a crime that injures the state, though I added the "sel" rafsi to make sure that no one thinks that the polity did the injuring. .i romai la deimid. cfari le ni'onrai tarmi be loi nuzba Finally, the-one-called Day-Middle initiates the new-most form of News. The Midday has established a totally new style in news: 140 .i <<lu se tirna fa lo voksa .i se viska fa lo xance poi se desku tai loka ti'e pacna zi'epoi cpedu lenu sidju Is-heard, a voice. Is-seen, a hand which [it?] is-shaken-by by- method a quality (I hear!) of hope and-which requests the-event-of- help. "A voice was heard. A hand was seen floundering desperately, asking for help. Nora suggests "slilu" for "se desku" but I'm not sure I agree. The "tai loka ti'e pacna" meant nothing to me. (What did people who tried reading this guess it meant? This kind of feedback will be helpful to Nick, and indeed to all of us, in learning to think from the listener's point of view. I welcome such comments on any other places in the text where you read something different in the Lojban than Nick or I represented in our translations. Help us learn Lojban!) I would suggest using "mutnitcu" ("much-needer") instead of "pacna" for "desperate", "seci'o" for "tai", and moving the attitudinal to show that it is the emotion expressed that is hearsay. "se desku seci'o ti'e loka mutnitcu" is "shaken-by [something] expressing-emotion (I hear!) much-need". .ibabo smaji .i ?ma pu fasnu .i mi ciksi And-then silence. What occurred? I explain. And then, silence. What was happening? [I answer my own question:] .i lo nixli pu sakli mo'ine'i lo skuro .ibazabo le nixli cu bacru <<lu mi farlu ri'a lenu la paf. na di'i tcidu la deimid. li'u>> li'u>> A girl slid moving-to-the-inside a groove. And a bit later the girl uttered 'I fall because the-event Pop not regularly reads the Day-middle'". A girl had slipped into a ditch. Later the girl said: 'I fell, because Dad doesn't read the Midday!'" An awesome effort, comparable to and perhaps as germinal as Athelstan's translation of Saki's "The Open Window" (see JL10). Let's hear a round of applause for Nick, such that he might hear it Down Under. ___________________________________________________________________ ________________________________ Translation of "lei lojbo" Nora: (Completion!) I am able to go, justified by Hope taking care of Katrina. Friend: (I hear!) Hope speaks Esperanto and not Lojban. Nora: True. But Katrina, also, speaks Esperanto. Friend: Approval! Hope: (in Esperanto) Takingly-pull (imperative). 141 Sam: (to himself) "prEnutrEne" is-the same-as "prenu trene" (= "person-train"). (Confusion!) I don't sense that represented by this [text]. Sam: (aloud) The station is excessively far. Katrina: (in Esperanto) Mystery Sam: (To himself): "mistEro" is-the same-as "mi stero" (= I am measured in steradians as (ellipsized amount). Sam: (thinking) Katrina expresses the symbol for a falsehood. This state-of-affairs is bad for Computers. Sam: (aloud) Users! (pejorative) (which sounds in Esperanto like "less than") Hope: (in Esperanto) Less than what? Till next issue. co'o.