Re: query

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

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>Date:         Sat, 12 Apr 1997 15:17:56 -0700
>From: Edward Cherlin <cherlin@NEWBIE.NET>
>
>e'osai ko fanva "political correctness" la lojban

Don't translate words, translate ideas.

The trouble with this request is that it seems to presume there's a term, a
"patently obvious" lujvo or tanru, which works for this concept.  But I
don't see why there should be (at least, not a short one).  After all,
try translating the (modern meaning of) "political correctness" into
*English*, but the English of, oh, fifty years ago.  I don't think the term
existed in its modern meaning then.  There *WAS NO* simple way of putting
it.  You would have to explain the whole concept, and what you meant by it,
and define the term thereby.  Not translating it into a term, but
describing it and assigning a word to your definition (and which definition
you choose is also a matter of debate, I imagine).

I've watched the back-and-forth about "philosophy" go by here, and I must
say that the same argument applies.  The word has so many different
meanings and uses and shades of meaning it's hard to believe Lojban will
have ANY single term for all of them, and just about all of them are
sufficiently complex that they need to be explained before you use them, no
matter *what* simple selbri you use.  You can't translate it, just *plink*
there's your word.  You have to define it, say what you mean, and then if
you like assign that meaning to a word (lujvo, tanru, broda, etc).  Was it
Jorge who recently said the same in Lojban?  I just skimmed the message.
That's why God created "cei", folks.

~mark


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