Part 2 of the Universal Speed Curriculum translated to Lojban
NOTE: A new release of the "vajrai terctu" is avaible. That draft should be used in preference to the one here.
I've uploaded a new draft of the Lojban translation of the Universal Speed Curriculum. This draft contains a translation of Part 2: Mine and Yours.
In Part 4, the phrase "I have your stick" appears. Translating this into Lojban is {mi ponse lo grana pe do}: "I possess the stick associated with you." Lojban provides a series of relative phrases, the GOI selma'o. that have a similar meaning to "mine" and "yours" in English. For legal possession, the gismu {ponse} roughly corresponds to {po} I could not find a gismu that corresponds to {pe}, so I settled on using {steci}.
The problem is that the phrase "I have your stick" is quite ambiguous. It ranges from the nearly nonsensical "I possess the stick you possess," (Are you both holding opposite ends?) the potentially true "I own the stick you own" (co-ownership?) to the clearer "I possess the stick you own" or "I own the stick you possess."
It is either of these last two meanings that are useful to "Where are your Keys?" The difference between possess and own is {pe} and {po}, when dealing with relative phrases.
Relative phrases seem fine to me when the relative phrase was already going to be a sumti. It seems weird to say this, however: {lo ta grana po do}, where I construct a sumti merely to use the cmavo {po} rather than an equivalent gismu: {ta poi grana ku'o ?po gismu? mi}. I could not find a direct gismu mapping for {po} and {pe}.
I settled on {steci}, rather than {ponse} for ?po gismu? when translating Part 2. This way, when I get to Part 4, I won't create a sentence like {mi ponse lo ponse be lo grana bei fa do} ("I own the stick owned by you."), where I want to distinguish ownership from association. I'd really like there to be separate gismu for possession and ownership, just like I have {po} and {pe} for relative phrases.
I'm not sure whether I should create what feel like tortured phrases in Part 2 so i can introduce {pe}, which I would really like to use in later parts (the above {mi ponse lo ponse be lo grana bei fa do} is much clearer as {mi ponse lo grana pe do} or introduce a gismu, {steci} and use it for the second ponse in what will feel like a tortured phrase in Part 4.
I'd like some direct mapping of {pe} and {po} to gismu. Or to not feel like my translations for part 2 suffer in my attend to introduce {pe}. That would make a smoother transition between talking about "your stick" in Part 2 and the possession of "your stick" in later sections. If you have any insight into this issue, I would love to hear it!
I still expect to alter previous sections as I continue to translate new ones. This document is not yet a fluid, integrated whole that builds fluency in bite-sized pieces. If you use it, I would love feedback on what is difficult and what works well.
This draft is available for download: