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RE: [engelang] Engelangs - A Design Goal Catalog



Mike:

I will have to give this more thought -- to think about how my
own goals compare to the ones you list. But in the meantime
I will add one less personal one, parsability. That is, 
whether an explicit parsing algorithm can be stated, and
if so, how simple is it. 

A goal of Livagian is that the output of the parser is an
explicit logically unambiguous representation. Furthermore,
the parser cannot look ahead beyond the current word, and
nor can it backtrack and alter structure it has already
built. (I am slightly simplifying the lookahead contraint,
but not misrepresenting the essential principle.) These
principles usefully constrain the range of possible syntactic
structures, and they also constrain the incidence of
phonologically null words. Further, they act as the guarantor
of nonambiguity and also of simplicity.

A related issue is whether parsing the syntax gives you the
logical structure. For example, although Lojban claims to
have an explicit and unambiguous grammar, this claim is
tantamount to being bogus, or at least fatuous, since all 
the grammar does is generate the set of well-formed word 
strings; the structure imposed by the grammar on the word 
strings does not give you the logical structure of the 
sentence. The rules for getting from the lexicosyntactic 
structure to the logical structure have not been created 
yet. (I exaggerate slightly: the grammar does yield predicate-
argument structure, but not much beyond that.) 

More anon.

--And.