Padraic Brown <elemtilas@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>That will depend on what you mean by it - the context is insufficient
>>to identify the intended meaning.
>
>I take it you don't listen to AM radio. The context is the top of the
>hour moment when the radio station jingle announces "WXYZ, 1551AM,
>with your news, s****ts and weather at the top of the hour!"
The statement is multiply ambiguous and false to boot (it's marketing,
so we should expect this). There will in fact be no s****ts at the top
of the hour. For one thing, hours are not physical objects and have
no "tops". If one uses the metaphorical interpretation, then the
entire newscast should take place in the instant that constitutes the
"top of the hour". In fact, it will likely be the main headline that
starts at the "top of the hour" and metonomic s****ts will occur some
time into the hour which is no longer the top. Metonomic because in
fact AM radio can provide you no s****ts. To have s****ts you have to
join the competition yourself. What they are providing you at the
non-top-of-the-hour isn't s****ts but "re****ts of news about some
s****ts that we think you are interested in".
And what precisely does WXYZ include under "s****ts" when they finally
get around to it? Would they re****t on a chess match? If they re****t
on Barry Bonds' alleged use of steroids, are they re****ting on
"s****ts". I didn't know taking drugs was a s****t, much less
allegations of taking drugs.
For that matter, s****ts and weather are kinds of news, so what is
being promised is "news, a particular kind of news, and a different
particular kind of news"
Should Lojban emulate this incredible sloppiness of language merely to
translate a marketing slogan?
>>If you are sufficiently specific in your meaning, Lojban will have a
>>number of possible words that would cover whatever concept. Using
>>metaphor translation, we might have compete-play or play-competition
>>or skill-competition, muscle play or muscle-rule-play
>
>How would an all-Lojban radio station announce its "news, s****ts and
>weather" at the top of the hour?
It wouldn't, since it could not provide such things.
If it were attempting to be as logical as the language, it would say
the lojban equivalent of something like "im****tant news about events,
competitions, and weather will be re****ted at the beginning of the
coming hour. Of course the "competitions" is then redundant, since
any competition is an event.
>>>I'm not at all sure that cultural neutrality is an attainable goal,
>>>even approximately. Are there natlangs that have no word for 's****ts'
>>>in the English sense?
>>
>>I suspect that most of them do not.
>
>Possibly not. S****ts as we know them in the modern world are
>definitely a luxury and a lesiuretime activity. This is not to say
>that other cultures don't have rigorous, team oriented, s****tlike
>activities. They might be religious in nature or cultural contests.
The olympics were originally a religious festival.
>>They will have one or more words
>>that translates "s****ts", but they will NOT have the exact same
>>meaning.
>
>Not until they im****t or otherwise develop the concept.
Even if they im****t and develop the concept, it will not have the same
meaning as the English word.
lojbab
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