Re: Elision, or: Nick rides again in jbonai

["Arthur W. Protin Jr." (GC-ACCURATE) <cbmvax!uunet!PICA.ARMY.MIL!protin>]

Folks,
    I wish to comment on the posting of  Arthur Hyun <ash@rpi.edu>
>   I have perused the first six lessons supplied to me and I feel totally
> unable to hold an intelligent conversation, that is, a conversation well-
> suited to my and my partner's (for lack of a better word) intellect.  
> After having looked carefully at the syntactic tools I have available to
> me, I find that I have a comparable ability to the English speaking 
> ability of perhaps a first or second grade child.
I have only made it up to the third lesson but I am reading it slowly
and thoroughly and find that all I lack is vocabulary.  (However,
I also started with Loglan 18 years ago)

>   My primary interest in lojban is the study of the structure and
> the syntax of it, not in learning to speak to anyone with it.  I am
> therefore relatively unconcerned with gaining any more than a very
> casual familiarity with the vocabulary, and I feel that such a familiarity
> will come as I try to express myself in it.  Furthermore, those things
> I would try to express are things that English is ill-suited for.  In
> order to press my understanding of the syntax of lojban, and therein
> the semantic ramifications, I *must* atempt to use lojban to express
> non-English, or, things that I would otherwise find difficulty in 
> expressing in English.  If this is not possible, I would find it a 
> failing of lojban.  
>   Before I can express something that I find English ill-suited for,
> I require a lojban tool that English either does not have.  Currently, as
> of chapter 6, I have no such tool, therefore I feel unable, or unwilling,
> to even attempt to use lojban as a language.

I am sorry he missed it but the distinct advantage that lojban has over
English is covered in the first two or three lessons!

I don't have time right now to try and make explicit what it is that he
missed, but to help him and others has anybody updated JCB's example
of the 17 different groupings of "a pretty, little, girl's school"
and can we use the English examples that show the difficulty expressing
comparable groupings (without violating his copyright)?

    thank you all,
    Arthur Protin


Arthur Protin <protin@pica.army.mil>
These are my personal views and do not reflect those of my boss
or this installation.