Re: lojban imperfections?

[Chris A Bogart <cbogart@INDRA.COM>]

On Fri, 13 Dec 1996, John E. Clifford wrote:

> 5.  Actually, all the roots (gismu -- we use this as a technical term, so as
> not to carry over any freight from other fields that may not fit) are
> unambiguous *in Lojban*, but get translated various ways in various
> contexts in English or whatever

Maybe I'm using terms imprecisely -- I mean that the boundary of
kamprenu is not precise -- there are some things for which you
can't tell, merely ading the gismu list, if they are a prenu or
not.  Or tricu, or dunda, or whatever.  So when you say
"ro le terdunda be mi", (roughly, "all the things given to me")
do we include the book that my friend left at my place, and I
had the impression he didn't want it anymore, but I'm not really
sure if it's mine or his now?  I'm not sure if the book is part
of loi terdunda, so the phrase is ambiguous -- it could include
the book, or it might not, and I don't believe the dictionary
definition of dunda is operational enough to clear this up.  If
it were, I'll wager I could still come up with a similar
ambiguity.

co'o do'u