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Re: [lojban] x2 of remna

2019-06-20 12:07 Pierre Abbat:

In the gimste, {remna} has no x2, unlike other words for kinds of organisms.
As several species are placed in the genus Homo, we should have a way to talk
about them. Should we use {remna} with x2 ({ta remna la .denisov.}, or {ta
remna la .aiutac.} using the Altai name for the cave), or make up another
word?

Pierre
Species places in taxon words make it impractical to correctly talk about individuals in the same taxon that aren't in the exact same species. Non-essential places in general are liabilities. 


! so'i cakcinki cu xabju lo purdi

doesn't work because it expands to


! so'i cakcinki be zo'e cu xabju lo purdi [be zo'e bei zo'e]
zo'e is a constant; so'i can't scope over it. All this can mean is "many beetles of the obvious species live in the garden"; nothing is said about beetles of other species. And there does have to be a single species zo'e refers to, since having it refer to multiple ones would say for *each* beetle that it's a member of all the species. 

In this case, there's a fairly simple way to get the intended meaning:


so'i cakcinki be su'o da cu xabju lo purdi

Many beetles, each of some species. Problem solved. But consider


! lo cakcinki poi xabju lo purdi cu dirba je se manci mi
where we have the same implicit zo'e -- "the beetles of that species that live in the garden" -- 


! lo cakcinki be zo'e be'o poi xabju lo purdi
but in this case, even when we replace zo'e with a quantified variable, there's no improvement, as there's no singular quantifier to scope over it. (There can't be one if things like {lo jmaji} or {lo simxu} are to mean anything!) 


! lo cakcinki be su'o da be'o poi xabju lo purdi

If lo doesn't give us a singular quantifier, let's introduce one.


? lo poi'i ro me ke'a su'o da cakcinki poi xabju lo purdi
A constant such that each thing among it is a beetle of some species. And that they live in the garden. Phew.
So now we have something likely to mean what was intended, but are people ready to accept this kind of verbosity (twice as many syllables as the English equivalent) into their everyday speech?
I'd be happy to lose all species places, and then some, in exchange for not having to talk like that. 

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