NAME¶
smujajgau - Dictionary builder for use with jbofihe and cmafihe
SYNOPSIS¶
smujajgau [-v]
smujajgau dictionary-name [
file1 file2 ...
filen ]
DESCRIPTION¶
smujajgau is a program that reads a set of English definitions for Lojban
words, and formats them into a presorted dictionary for use by the jbofihe and
cmafihe programs. The dictionary is arranged for rapid access.
OPTIONS¶
- -v
- Show the program version and exit.
- dictionary-name
- This is the name of the formatted dictionary to be generated / modified.
If the file exists, the definitions in the other file will be added,
replacing existing entries where they clash.
- file1 .. filen
- The source files to be added. Lines beginning with # are treated as
comments and discarded. Other lines should have one of the forms
lojban:english
lojban:english:comment
SEE ALSO¶
- jbofihe
- Checks Lojban grammar checker and provides English translations of the
individual words.
- cmafihe
- Provides English translations of Lojban words in the input, without
checking the grammar. Useful for getting a rough translation of
grammatically invalid text.
FILES¶
- /usr/local/lib/jbofihe/smujmaji.dat
- This file is the default location where jbofihe and cmafihe
expect to find the dictionary. It should therefore be the default first
argument to smujajgau (unless the software was installed to an alternative
location.)
Dictionary entries for brivla (gismu & lujvo) are expected to provide
entries for each place of the word. The English translation should indicate
the type of the word and the translation. The types are shown in the following
table. In addition, the gloss for a translation X is shown depending on the
context where it will arise in the translation. These defaults may be
overridden.
Letter |
Type |
Noun |
Verb |
Qualifier |
Tag |
|
A |
Act |
X-er(s) |
X-ing |
X-ing |
X-er(s) |
D |
Discrete |
X(s) |
being X |
X |
X |
S |
Substance |
X |
being X |
X |
X |
P |
Property |
X thing(s) |
being X |
X |
X thing(s) |
R |
Rev. prop |
thing(s) X |
being X |
X |
things(s) X |
I |
Idiomatic |
thing(s) X-ing |
X-ing |
X-ing |
thing(s) X-ing |
E |
Event |
X(s) |
being X |
X |
X |
To specify the dictionary entries, the lojban should take the form 'brivlaN',
where brivla is the word and N is the place number. One of the following may
be suffixed to provide an override of the defaults in the table : n v a or t
(for noun, verb, adjective, tag respectively.)
As an example, 'nanmu' might have entries
nanmu1:D;man
nanmu1n:D;man/men
whereas 'nandu' might have the definition
nandu1:P;difficulty
nandu2:I;have* difficulty
nandu3:S;conditions for difficulty
nandu3t:under conditions
a '*' is used in the places where the affixed -s, -er and -ing should be applied
(instead of putting them at the end of the English translation, which is the
default.)
The 'places.dat' file included in the distribution shows many examples.
Where a translation with an 'n' suffix exists, this is used in place of some
other default forms in the table. For example, this allows special plural
forms to be used in other places (e.g. tags.)
The dictionary also supports some 'pattern' translations. This allows defaults
to be automatically generated for forms ending in '-gau', defined in terms of
the prefix.
The 'Lojban' form for such patterns should be defined in the dictionary as
'*Mprefix+N' or '*M+suffixN' for prefix forms (e.g. nu+) and suffix forms
(e.g. +zmadu) respectively. M is the 'precedence' (5 highest, 0 lowest),
defining the order in which prefix v suffix matches will be attempted. N is
the place number as usual. The letters n, v, a or t may be suffixed to define
a particular form if required, as for normal definitions.
The 'English' form is either a standard definition or a place redirection. In
standard definitions, the symbol % is used to mean the translation of the rest
of the lujvo form. Place redirections take the form @N, and mean that the
lojban pattern form should be translated as place N of the rest of the lujvo.
An example makes this clearer : zmadu.
*2+zmadu1:R;more %1q
*2+zmadu2:R;less %1q
*2+zmadu2t:than
*2+zmadu3:@2
*2+zmadu4:@3
*2+zmadu5:@4
*2+zmadu6:@5
The components are defined in terms of the full gismu forms, rather than rafsi
(hence zmadu rather than mau). This is necessary because the form of a rafsi
can change when components are added to or subtracted from a lujvo form.
When the 'English' form is given as '-', it indicates that the next components
inwards should be concatenated to form a new 'Lojban' form for lookup. This
facility is only used for one thing so far - to handle the rafsi 'zil'
followed by the rafsi for a cmavo of selma'o PA to puncture a place from the
following form. An example (to delete the 1st place of a word, e.g.
zilpavykla) :
*4zi'o+1:-
*4zi'o+2:-
*4zi'o+3:-
*4zi'o+4:-
*4zi'o+5:-
*4zi'o+pa+1:@2
*4zi'o+pa+2:@3
*4zi'o+pa+3:@4
*4zi'o+pa+4:@5
*4zi'o+pa+5:@6
The pattern forms are all defined in a file 'patterns' in the distribution.
For cmavo, there are special forms used for certain selma'o, particular tenses.
These allow dependence on the context in which the cmavo is used. Logical
connectives are also defined in a special way. The file 'extradict' in the
distribution provides examples.
(More documentation is required!)
BUGS¶
ju'oru'e so'imei (Surely there are many).
REFERENCES¶
- http://go.to/jbofihe
- Home page for the jbofihe project
- http://www.rrbcurnow.freeuk.com/lojban/
- My Lojban page.
- http://www.lojban.org/
- Home page of the Lojban community
AUTHOR¶
Richard Curnow
<rpc@myself.com>