Re: Universal Translation Language

Joshua Shinavier wrote:
>
> > >Ambiguity is an essential part of any language.  What would poetry be
> > >without deliberate ambuguity.
> >
> > Exactly!
> >
> > >How would you translate "'Twas brillig in the
> > >slithy toves..." into an unambiguous IAL, since the whole piece is _meant_
> > >to be ambiguous, and would lose all its "meaning" if it were disambiguated.
> >
> > Yep - and when Marcos produces his UTL, that's the first thing I'll
> > translate into it  :-)
> >
> > BTW - has anyone translatedthe Jabberwocky into lojban or Classical Yiklamu?
> >
> > Ray.
>
> That's a trivial kind of ambiguity, though, and easily solved (that is, if you
> want to solve it!): these words are simply not defined.  The ambiguity which
> loglangs can't tolerate is syntactic ambiguity, and words with multiple
> meanings.
>
My thoughts exactly, Josh.  The kind of ambiguity that a logical
language is
going to get hung up on is in the following poem, and I was looking for
it
at the moment you posted.  It's the kind of punning that's hard to
translate
into other languages, much less one that has tried to eliminate
ambiguity--
and punning:

                Whoever hath her wish thou hast her Will,
                And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;
                More than enough am I that vex thee still,
                To thy sweet will making addition thus.
                Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
                Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
                Shall will in others seem right gracious,
                And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
                The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
                And in abundance addeth to his store.
                So thou being rich in Will add to thy Will
                One will of mine to make thy large Will more.
                   Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill;
                   Think all but one and me in that one Will.

                                WILLiam Shakespeare,
                                Sonnet 135.

Anybody up to enumerate the different meanings of "will" here?  I think
this
gives the Charyan Brothel Songs and the various translations a run for
their money!
Hee hee hee!

Sally