Namespaces

[Danny Pickle]

Does lojban have a concept of namespaces? Like everything said by the speaker is assumed to be in their namespace, but they could specify otherwise. For example, i could talk about "free culture" and mean something different than what larry lessig would mean by "free culture" but we can each talk about the "free culture" in the other's namespace.

P.S. On an unrelated note, can lojban easily designate the base used for a number/in math (base ten, two, sixteen, seven, whatever)?

[Remo Dentato]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 8:57 AM, Danny Pickle
<danny.pi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Does lojban have a concept of namespaces?

If you have in mind the namespaces you find in programming languages,
I would say no. In some language the meaning of "a:apple" and
"b:apple" (where "a" and "b" are namespaces) are completely unrelated
and can be set.

In Lojban, each word has a definite meaning which. Based on the
context my "lo plise" and your "lo plise" could refer to two different
apples but they are apples.

remod

[Michael Turniansky]

  To your PS --   Yes.  ju'u specifies the base (see chapter 18, section 10).

  And with all due respect to Remo, actually, and especially with regard to tanru, you can have different contexts for terms, but it may be a bit tricky to define those contexts (ca'e and smuni (esp. te smuni) can be handy here).

         --gejyspa

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 2:57 AM, Danny Pickle <danny.pi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does lojban have a concept of namespaces? Like everything said by the speaker is assumed to be in their namespace, but they could specify otherwise. For example, i could talk about "free culture" and mean something different than what larry lessig would mean by "free culture" but we can each talk about the "free culture" in the other's namespace.

P.S. On an unrelated note, can lojban easily designate the base used for a number/in math (base ten, two, sixteen, seven, whatever)?

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[vitci'i]

You could say {lo se cmene be la .frikultcr. bei la .lerilesyg.}.

You can specify radix explicitly with {ju'u}.

[djandus]

Actually, I would say that Lojban does have to what you are referring, if I understand you correctly.

The simplest way of explaining it could be how to refer to a mother.

{lo mamta} means "one who is a mother" -- this refers to something that matches the "universally" agreed-upon definition of {mamta}

{le mamta} means "one that I describe as a mother" -- this is more subjective, and makes no claim that everyone would agree with the description

{la .mam.} is more like the name "Mom" that you might call someone.

So, if I'm interpreting your question correctly, then yes, {lo} is kind of like being in the "global" namespace, where {le} is kind of like being in the "local" namespace. {la} is very loose -- it's basically a different name format, as it doesn't require a grammatical word, but only a pronounceable word.

[Remo Dentato]

Maybe Danny could elaborate a little bit more on his question. I
interpreted "namespace" in the same sense it is used for programming
languages:

"A namespace (sometimes also called a name scope) is an abstract
container or environment created to hold a logical grouping of unique
identifiers or symbols (i.e., names). [...] The same identifier can be
independently defined in multiple namespaces." (from Wikipedia).

With this interpretation the question is whether in Lojban I can set
{mamta} to mean "mother" in a context and "apple" in another context.
It's about the identifier, the word {mamta} itself, not about the fact
that {lo mamta} and {le mamta} (or even {la .mam.}) refer to different
mothers (which they can and most probably do).

But, as I said, maybe Danny had something different in mind.

Remod

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[.arpis.]

I wonder if an old (for me) thread is relevant here:  http://groups.google.com/group/lojban-beginners/browse_thread/thread/19a443e3194fd617/7a338a4f39731839 

--
mu'o mi'e .arpis.