Subject: "which?" (was: RE: [lojban] centripetality: subset vs component

From: "And Rosta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 20:15:02 +0100

Jorge (to Ivan):
> > > But I've always had trouble asking "which?"
> > > in Lojban. I agree that {le mo broda} just doesn't do it.
> >
> >Perhaps `whose?' (`of what larger unit?'), {le ma broda}, is closer.
> 
> Yes, that's what I thought too, but I think I've changed my
> mind. I now think that the difference between "which" and
> "what kind of" is fully and well adressed by the choice of
> article: {lo mo broda} = "what kind of broda?", and
> {le mo broda} = "which broda?". This is because an answer
> with {le} will perforce refer to an instance, and an answer
> with {lo} will refer to an unspecified member of a kind.
> 
> le mo mlatu i le blabi mlatu
> Which cat? The white cat.
> 
> lo mo mlatu i lo blabi mlatu
> What kind of cat? A white cat.

[Please excuse me if this topic was taken up in a different thread
which I've not read yet.]

I don't think this necessarily works, except as a convention that
exceeds the grammar's stipulations. Specifically, the problem is
that when discussing "le mlatu", you might want to ask what kind
of cat it is, and not all relevant answers to that question will
tell you which cat is being referred to.

I myself can't think of any way of expressing "which" 
unambiguously, though it's hard to find a relevant interpretation
of "le mlatu voi mo" other than as a "which" question.

BTW, does nonveridicality extend to the end of the sumti? That is,
in "le broda poi brode", is "brode" nonveridical? I was assuming,
perhaps incorrectly, that "le mo broda" is approximately equivalent
to "le broda poi mo", but if it is in fact instead approximately
equivalent to "le broda voi mo", then of course my suggestion is
useless.

As for "xomoi", which I see in a different thread, I don't understand
it and have not come across a decent explanation of it. But it sounds
promising.

--And.