Re: GID

Hi localhosed, thanks for your suggestions. You are right, many of those “c= ommon” words I mentioned are not so common. And *cristal was an error.

Any= way, I think lexicographers need to use both a frequency approach (like Dav= is & Gardner’s frequency list of 5000 words) and a theoretical approach (li= ke the “Longman Defining Vocabulary” of 2200 essential words: http://longma= nusahome.com/dictionaries/images/vocab_definitions.pdf ). With the latter w= e get some essential words which may be not very frequent. Greetings. Xavi.=

— In glosalist@yahoogroups.com, Localhosed localhosed@... wrote:

= I don’t know what to say other than that you or other people could make s= uggestions and start discussion of that and maybe keep a document of the = proposals in this lists’s files area, since I don’t know who, if anyone, = has authority over the GID.

I’ll try to link some of the words you gav= e with meanings that may be able to include these words, at least english= meanings. As to keeping other language dictionaries more or less meaning= -matched with any additions to english Centra, that is another important = thing to consider, but as for me, I don’t know languages other than engli= sh and parts of a few constructed languages.

I’m using Centra only f= or my comparison here since it seems to be more consistent than Mega GID = overall. It’s easier to manage because it is shorter also and seems to ha= ve no or few self contradictions, which I also could call excessive ambig= uity. I have no great confidence in my criticism at the moment because I = can tell that the people who worked on Centra knew more about dictionary = making and language than I do right now. So I make tentative suggestions.= Though Mega has some conveniences and more greek roots, so it has its us= es. I don’t know if Mega has a different ratio of greek to latin roots, a= fter the questionable or old words are not taken into account (x marked w= ords) . I don’t know what the maybe optimal balance of greek to latin roo= ts could be given the composition of target speakers.

I just give thes= e for discussion since I haven’t thought about them for long lengths of t= ime.

physician : add to definition of medika-pe - ( doctor (medical= ) )

absence : maybe add to definition of defekti - defect; fault; = deficiency; flaw; lack; be lacking ; be missing

activity : maybe a= dd to definition of akti - act; do; behave; accomplish; action; active; c= ommit; deed; does (form of to do); doing (participle of to do); perform; = performance; take action; transact

dictator : similar to arki - chie= f; official (adj); authority; govern; rule (authority)

riches : si= milar to pluto - rich; resources; wealth

thirsty : in Centra, fami =

• hunger; hungry and dipso - thirst so, dipso might include thirsty a= lso. Unless other sources contradict for a good reason, or anyone else ha= s thoughts.

simplicity : similar to elementa - element; elementary; = primary; simple

simplify : phrase can be made from elementa… maybe= face elementa (to make simple) , for passive “simplified” maybe - gene e= lementa (becomes simple, becomes elementary) . I don’t know Glosa well,= I may not be using all accepted rules.

desirable : maybe use mega= valu, or some other phrase with valu -

I haven’t read davies and garn= er’s book. So I’m willing to think the words below might be common, but t= hey don’t seem common to me : amusing, disciple, guardian, oversee, crist= al (is it supposed to be crystal, or cristal?) But I may as well consid= er them anyway. Oversee may be mostly synonymous with ‘manage’ and simila= r words in GID.

Wikipedia says that a greek root of crystal has to do = with ice, I have no idea about latin roots of it. I would like to see thi= s word in the GID, even if only in Mega GID, depending on how often used = it could be, and if there are other ways to say it using Centra that aren= ‘t too long. If not, Bill Nye might disapprove of it!

18 step guide = lists grandmother, etc. I haven’t found grandparent, but grandmother or g= randfather are more accurate. Grandparent might be parenta-parenta, or so= mething less funny.

helper : I wouldn’t add it to auxi, because help= er in english can mean help, a helping person, a helping tool, a helping = method, it’s a very general and dissolved word, and to me auxi allows for= phrases or compound words that include all of those meanings. But the GI= d could possibly have standard meanings for some helping things, but I he= sistate to choose because of the many helping things that there are possi= ble to name. It may be that GID makers deliberately did not include some = words in order to keep dictionary size relatively small, which may make i= t easier to sort through the dictionary if you are new to the language…=

However, as to why Centra GID doesn’t include things like ordinal num= bers (other than first) or names of numbers like fourteen, or numerals = themselves under definitions of numbers like eight, I don’t know. Maybe it = was a low priority , or maybe they want to include those separately in th= e 18 step guide. I admit that I have read the shortened HTML 18 step guid= e less than the dictionary. But maybe a guide outside the dictionary is = necessary to teach the language well.

Some words (like activity) as u= sed in english can be difficult for me to sort out. When english words ha= ve uses in adjective, noun, adverb or verb form, a decision needs to be m= ade of which form to use, or mix with others based on popularity or some= other reason. As to what reason is the best, I chose before common use “= intuitively” and by checking thesaurus and dictionaries. But if a word = (like activity) has been so dissolved into multiple meanings, this had ma= de me want to avoid adopting such words into a dictionary at all. A famou= s example might be english ‘set’ . I like what Centra GID did with this w= ord. If the intention of Glosa is to be a simple language, a larger dict= ionary may not be more useful, but I can see the usefulness of maybe addi= ng more translations to existing definitions if the definitions of the en= glish words aren’t very loaded with varying meanings.

But the Glosa = as it became seems to allow more ambiguous seeming definitions at a first= glance, when the parts of speech were partly made undefined and instead = were made part of syntax. So that makes it even more diffcult for me to t= ry to adopt new words into the dictionary. It is because I don’t have exp= licit information about what the maker’s thoughts were in making it as it= is now, and no explicit information about the methods they used.

Pl= ease let me know what anyone thinks about this. Pusi piro tu u faba de ka= fa. Po-co, bibe id. Saluta, Vale, Ultima Koku de Bovi

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