Re: lujvo, tanru, and the price of fish

[cowan (John Cowan)]

> You might find the exercise instructive. Indeed, I contend that the key to
> good lojban is NOT using tanru, but being able to avoid them. If lojban has
> a proper semantics at all, then all tanru must be expandable.

All tanru are expandable, but often in several ways.  Tanru are designed
to achieve compression at the expense of semantic clarity.  Consider the
case of "slasi mlatu".  In actual communication, nobody is likely to
suppose that this means "mlatu poi slasi"; the actual meaning "mlatu poi
se zbasu fi le slasi" comes through loud and clear.  Language, after all,
is generally >about< something.

--
cowan@snark.thyrsus.com		...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan
		e'osai ko sarji la lojban